This is a video that has caused quite a stir since its broadcast by the British tabloid The sun† We see how the French football player Kurt Zouma gives his cat several blows. The pill is not going away among internet users and many of them are demanding the extradition of the Blue, who currently has a contract with the English football club West Ham. But would the general public have reacted the same if this video had been published ten years earlier?
The video is only a few minutes long, but unfortunately summarizes the violence we could have done without. We see French footballer Kurt Zouma, who seems to have mistook his cat for a ball, kicks his animal several times before hitting him hard, right in front of his little boy.
After the broadcast of this video, viewed by more than a million people since its publication by the tabloid The sun On Tuesday, February 8, the Adidas brand announced on Wednesday that it had ended the sponsorship partnership it united with the footballer. The West Ham club where he currently plays has also ordered him to pay a £250,000 fine. The amount of money is to be donated to animal defense associations.
Internet users also reacted violently. A few hours after the video was published by the English association Anti Animal Abuse, a petition was launched on the Change.org site. To date, it has more than 300,000 signatures. The revenges? May Kurt Zouma be prosecuted and his cats brought to safety. It’s finished. The felines have been placed in a rescue center by the RSPCA (English equivalent of the SPA).
Three French animal protection associations have also filed a complaint against the footballer. His animal cruelty could also cost him his spot on the Blues team, as coach Didier Deschamps hinted in an interview with France 3Wednesday 9 February.
Has the general public always so strongly condemned these acts of animal cruelty? If it’s tricky to answer this question, at least it isn’t the first time a celebrity has been linked to an animal cruelty scandal.
A year earlier, French rapper Leto also found himself at the heart of a controversy after trapping his dog on a balcony covered in feces. In February 2021, a complaint was lodged in Paris by the Action animal protection association and the singer could be fined 30,000 euros and two years in prison.
In 2019, American Youtuber Brooke Houts, who was pinned by internet users after incorrectly published video, stormed in at lightning speed on which we see her beating her doberman. An act that prompted an investigation by US authorities, but which “for lack of sufficient evidence” has not resulted in any legal sanction.
But in both cases, internet users reacted violently. So much so that in the case of Brooke Houts, the YouTuber deleted her Instagram account, faced with the gigantic number of outraged messages from internet users.
The French population increasingly sensitive to the animal cause
If animal cruelty has always caused a reaction, internet users seem to judge it increasingly harshly. Especially when it comes to pets. In general, we are witnessing a growing awareness when it comes to the animal cause. The rise of social networks and online petition sites such as Change.org, as well as the dissemination of images by animal rights groups such as L214 or PETA, are of course no stranger to this.
According to an Ifop survey revealed in September 2021, 84% of French men and women say they are sensitive to animal welfare. Of them, 47% even stated that this theme could influence their vote choice in the next presidential election.
A postulate confirmed by another Ifop poll published in early February, according to which 69% of French consider the animal cause as a real theme of the election campaign, in the same way as “ecology, security or purchasing power”. More than half (55%) of the French population surveyed, for example, explained that in their view a candidate who defends practices such as hunting is not eligible.
(ETX Daily Up)