Should this video be reported for animal curelty?

[SapphireLightning]

Came across this thumbnail in youtube.


I couldn't bring myself to watch it, but the thumbnail does seem to depict someone catapulting a squirrel in a manner that could cause serious injury. It doesn't just look like some "carnist doing stupid thing to animals fun time"... More like blatant animal abuse.

I don't have a link to it, but it is the most recent Mark Rober video.

 

[Sax]

Here's the video:

I skimmed it...it's basically a squirrel obstacle course video. There's a net to catch the squirrels. It's not very nice but I think cruelty is a stretch. The guy behind the video seems to appreciate squirrels and doesn't intend to hurt them.

 

[Lou]

I actually watched the whole thing. It was fun. I gave it a thumbs up.

Main takeaways.

This guy has real respect and appreciation for nature and squirrels.
For a fraction of the effort and cost he probably could have made a truly squirrel proof bird feeder. It seems like in his final design - the bird feeder was almost an afterthought. He was mostly creating a squirrel obstacle course.
IMHO his squirrel obstacle course was deliberately designed to be beaten. If the squirrels couldn't beat it both the squirrels and I would have lost interest.
In the design, he purposely and deliberately made the obstacles so that it could not hurt the squirrels. Even putting a manual abort switch on the catapult.
As far as the squirrel-a-pult goes, he had already captured video of squirrels making much longer leaps. Plus the squirrels, after they were catapulted would just run around and reenter the course. I don't think they would have done that if they were scared of the thing.
And after the squirrels demonstraed a mastery of the catapult - he disabled it.
The video is educational. I learned a lot about squirrels and a little about physics.

 

[SapphireLightning]

Ok, good. I am glad it is not something nasty. The thumbnail looked rather suspect, the squirrel in that still did not look happy. I'll check it out in a bit, thank you.

 

[KLS52]

I watched the entire video. It was amazing. I loved it!

 

[silva]

I was in awe! He's brilliant, and I so appreciated him describing every aspect rather than just flat out telling you they're not being hurt

 

[Hog]

@ SapphireLightning - Your heart is in the right place. Thumbnail repulsed me too. I am glad that the video does not actually contain animal abuse.

 

[Urban Gardener]

They should change the thumbnail so it won't promote cruelty. A lot of people only see that, and will think the video makes light of harming squirrels.

Squirrels are incredible. They deserve more respect.

 

[Amy SF]

I watched the entire video maybe a month ago. It’s absolutely amazing what he did, and there’s no animal cruelty involved. His main intent it seems was to prevent the squirrels from eating the bird feed in the feeder. As a matter of fact, this guy is an actual rocket scientist, and what he built is really amazing. I developed a healthy respect for him after watching this video.