TERRIFIED kittens and puppies are being tormented in animal cruelty YouTube videos designed to dupe viewers and win millions of clicks.
The sick trend, part of a wave of vile clips being hosted on the platform, involves dramatically “saving” vulnerable pets from being stuck in wires, drownings and predators such as crocodiles, Komodo dragons and snakes.
According to research carried out by the animal welfare group, Lady Freethinker, there are currently 122 such videos on YouTube, which have been viewed almost 170million times.
The Sun Online uncovered numerous videos which bore the hallmarks of being staged to help the creators win clicks.
The abusers, who are made out to be heroes, will place a pet in a dangerous situation hoping that rescuing cute kittens and puppies will make the clip go viral.
Often the poor animals can be seen distressed as they face predators, are deliberately trapped or are placed in water.
In one clip we viewed a puppy was “saved” as it was being squeezed to death by a python.
It can be heard yelping in agony as the snake tries to squeeze it to death before a young boy comes to its aid.
An equally disturbing vid shows several clearedly terrified puppies corned into a hole while a massive snake closes in on them, lunging at them with its fangs.
In another video, three little kittens are also filmed cowering in a hole as a young crocodiles approaches just a few inches away.
And a similar piece of footage had a Komodo dragon attacking them.
Placing little kittens by the sides of busy roads is another scenario, with one vid filming the terrified kitty until it is rescued which has been viewed 13 million times.
Fake drownings are another distressing trend as animals are believed to be deliberately placed in water only to then be “rescued” on video.
One we found had been viewed eight million times and featured a tiny kitten laying half submerged before it is pulled from the water.
A Lady Freethinker spokesperson told The Sun Online: “We defines animal abuse content as footage in which animals are deliberately harmed or placed in jeopardy for entertainment or shown to be under severe psychological distress, physical pain, or dead.
“This content clearly violates YouTube’s community standards, which prohibit showing forms of animal abuse including dogfighting, cockfighting, animal torture, and hunting using illegal practices in videos.”
The organistion has a petition on its website which has amassed almost 36,000 signatures decrying the abuse videos and calling for YouTube to take action.
It comes after The Sun Online uncovered a slew of other cruelty videos showing baby monkeys getting throttled, slapped, menaced with pliers or even killed on video.
It took just minutes for Sun Online to find numerous shocking abuse videos – some of which have hundreds of thousands of views each under the hashtag #monkey_tube.
One video we viewed showed a man throttling a baby monkey – with the video title boasting he made her “super loud cry”.
Another clip showed a monkey’s limbs being gripped as he was held upside down and slapped by his “mom”.
The Sun Online has approached YouTube for comment.
