An Upper Darby woman is facing multiple counts of aggravated animal cruelty after she tortured and mutilated animals for likes on YouTube, according to police.
Anigar Monsee, 28, ran a YouTube account where officials say she posted videos of herself in “scantily-clad” clothing killing rabbits, chickens, frogs and pigeons.
In the videos posted over the last year, Monsee could be seen slowly disemboweling and mutilating the animals while they were still alive, and sometimes severing the animals' necks with a dull knife for several minutes, according to the affidavit.
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The Upper Darby Police Department was notified of the YouTube account by the animal rights organization PETA.
“We hate seeing these kinds of things and it seems ironic —s ome of the people who care the most about animals have to be the ones to bear witness to these unthinkable acts. But its necessary so that we can stop future incidents from happening," said Kristin Rickman, director of emergency response team at PETA.
PETA led police to Monsee using clues and background details from the videos she posted and the comment section below the videos, where viewers — who would encourage her actions — referred to her as “Ani.”
In the affidavit, officials noted that Monsee appeared to solicit more likes before she would harm an animal and said that some of her commentary was sexually charged.
“The people who enjoy that kind of material will seek it out and will even pay for it," Rickman said.
Monsee was arrested on Jan. 19 and has been charged with four counts of aggravated cruelty to animals.
When she was brought in by police she admitted that she is the woman in the videos and that the YouTube account belonged to her, investigators said.
Police said they played the videos of her torturing the animals to her and said she “became visibly upset” and requested that one video be turned off.
YouTube’s community guidelines, which lays out the rules for what is allowed on the site, states that animal abuse content is not permitted. The ban includes videos in which humans inflict physical harm to an animal to cause suffering. However, Monsee's disturbing videos remained on her channel even after her arrest. YouTube eventually shut down the page Thursday.
"Content that is violent or abusive toward animals is not allowed on YouTube, and we have terminated the channel in question,” YouTube spokesman Javier Hernandez said in a statement to NBC.
Monsee is currently being held on a $200,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court for her preliminary hearing on Feb. 5. Monsee did not appear to have retained an attorney who could speak on her behalf.
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