#bigcatrescue

This video is about to be 2 years old on the 14th of this month. I just want to talk about it today to bring up some parts of this that bothered me. Gripes, in other words, so don’t blow this entirely out of context or anything. Here we go.

Firstly, the intro to this is good for about 6 seconds and then they decide to use this flashy, pre-rendered sparkle effect to bring in the text that restates the title of the video. Normally, stuff that is noted to give people epileptic seizures doesn’t bother me in the slightest. Dennō Senshi, for example, even though that was a notable event that caused more than 650 seizures in Japanese children.

But this effect, that happens twice as the text fades in and back out, actually DOES cause me to feel disoriented and gives me a slight headache. It also burns a bit into my vision, so for a few seconds after seeing it i have trouble seeing, especially anything that’s bright. I really wish they would have some warning about this at the beginning or in the description, as actual epileptics could suffer similar symptoms or WORSE from this without knowing it’s coming.

Now, as for the video itself, not much to really say except for one detail. In this video, as you’ll see after the title sequence mentioned above, the rescue cats at this sanctuary are being fed treats of chicken, beef or pork on a wooden pole, through the holes in their enclosures.

The pole, though? That pole is THE SAME pole used FOR EACH CAT, which can’t be a good thing. You’ll notice it quickly if you cycle through the numpad while watching the video. It doesn’t appear to get cleaned, either, so essentially this puts the cats at risk of cross-transmission of certain viruses and bacteria that are left on the wood. Big Cat Rescue has come under fire before for their handling of certain cats, notably servals. So this probably comes as no surprise to some.

Last gripe is simply that there’s music playing over what we could be listening to, the sounds of the cats eating. Which is what, y’know, everyone came for.