Norfolk, Va. — After someone called PETA’s 24-hour emergency line to report a Snapchat video showing a teen viciously punching a cat, the group worked with local police to get him out of the abuser’s hands—and now, as a new PETA video (Video shows scenes of violence, please bear this in mind before watching it) released today shows, he’s thriving in his new home.
Although the cat (named Oreo) will always carry some physical scars from the abuse he endured—his left ear is deformed and will always be susceptible to infection—his behavior has completely transformed.
“To see him in [the Snapchat] video is just really hard to see … you can just tell how absolutely terrified he is,” his adopter, PETA staffer Thomas McNulty, explains in the video. “I spent a lot of time with him, and slowly but surely, he was starting to come out of his shell more, and I think my other rescue cats helped with that.”
“One call to PETA’s emergency hotline saved this cat from what could have been a lifetime of abuse,” says PETA Vice President Colleen O’Brien. “If you spot cruelty to animals online, download the video, take a screenshot, and report it—you just may save a victim’s life.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
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