The internet has introduced a large number of bizarre trends and video “challenges.” Most are just harmless, like a weird dance move or a prank you pull on your parents. One disturbing “food challenge” however, involves force-feeding dogs human foods on camera.
A live-streamed video of a German Shepherd in China went viral for this upsetting reason. The person who put the video together set down a bowl of La Zi Ji, or Chongqing (Chili Chicken) in front of his dog. The regional dish is known for containing extremely spicy flavors. In other words, this is not food a dog should be eating.
Odds are if you put a bowl of almost anything down in front of a dog, they’ll start chowing down. This German Shepherd certainly did, and he had no idea what was in store for him. In the video, you can clearly see tears dripping from his eye and down his face.
The video-maker claims the dog “enjoys it very much,” but a massive number of viewers disagree. Truthfully, most of the replies to the video are too angry to even share.
You can watch the footage below but be warned that it may be disturbing to see.
Not An Isolated Incident
Sadly, this video does not stand alone. “Mukbang” is a food-related online video trend that originated in Korea. It loosely translates to “eating broadcast,” and there are tons of these videos online. People eating bizarre or large amounts of food is one thing. However, forcing a dog to eat foods that don’t go well with it reaches a whole new level.
In addition to being hard on their digestive system, the smell of spicy foods alone can harm a dog. As Chrissie Klinger of Hill’s Pet writes:
“If you’re ever got a whiff of cumin powder, you know how strong it can be. Now think about how much stronger your dog’s sense of smell is than yours. Something that strong that can make your own eyes water can have an even larger impact on your dog.”
Spicy foods can also make your dog thirsty which in turn might make them vomit.
From the countries where most of these videos come from, the government response has mainly focused on food waste. For this reason, it’s possible the video trend will be banned entirely. If it needs to be said, however, you really should not do this to your dog, no matter how many likes it gets your videos!
H/T: The Standard
Featured Image: Screenshot, Evening Standard
Toledo, United States.
