YouTube star Logan Paul is under fire yet again over an old video where he introduced his dog to a tiger cub.
Paul has become one of the Internet’s favorite controversial figures after he filmed a video in Japan’s infamous “suicide forest” last year. Now, things have escalated further as an old video resulted in criminal charges, according to a report by The Blast.
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Paul filmed a video in 2017 where he brought his dog, Kong, face to face with a tiger cub owned by Nicholas Perkins. Now, Perkins has reportedly been charged with two counts of illegal possesion of a tiger, one count of mistreatment of a tiger and one count of possession of anabolic steroids.
The charges stemmed directly from Paul’s video, according to a city attorney. They told the outlet that their office identified the animal on Paul’s post, and soon decided to intervene.
“Tigers and other exotic animals are not pets,” the city attorney told reporters. “Keeping those potentially dangerous animals in a residential setting poses a serious safety risk for residents.”
While the animal was not physically abused in the video, keeping it in a residential area constitutes abuse in and of itself. Sure enough, when police obtained a search warrant for Perkins’ home, they found the tiger in “poor living conditions.” Perkins was reportedly feading the tiger kitten milk replacement formula with a baby bottle.
“My office will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to ensure these treasured creatures are safe and those who illegally keep them are held accountable,” said City Attorney Mike Feuer.
Perkins could face up to two and a half years in jail and a $4,000 fine if he is convicted. Meanwhile, Paul’s video has been up for over a year, and it has amassed a steady stream of comments noting the apparent unfairness of the video.
“Kong may be treated well most of the time, but this was cruel,” one fan noted. “Logan put his dog in a stressful and dangerous situation. Tigers are wild animals that can be unpredictable at times, even if it’s just a baby.”
Paul himself has yet to respond to the charges. The brash young social media star was apparently humbled last December after a video filmed in the Aokigahara Forest, where a shocking number of suicides have taken place. Paul filmed the body of a suicide victim in an insensitive manner, and soon lost his stream of income when YouTube de-monetized his channel for a time.
