Pranks and Possums : When Clout Seeking Goes Wrong.

In early December, popular youtuber Charles Ross, who runs the channel 'Vlog Creations', dedicated to what he describes as ‘Pranks, but not mean’, uploaded a quick video to his Instagram account .The footage depicts an opossum being forcibly launched from a homemade contraption designed to catapult the animal around thirty feet into the air after being entrapped. The video shows the animal hitting the ground with a sickeningly loud thump and then slowly limping away in a daze. The footage was simply captioned ‘W’, an abbreviation for win.

It’s unclear what the win in this scenario may be, but it’s evidently presented to the audience as just another innocuous prank, intended to be laughed off in good humor. It was not particularly well received, by both his audience and the wider internet in general. Let’s take a moment to highlight a few of the issues at play here.

Ross is a Floridian native, and as dictated by Florida's Fish and wildlife commission (FWC) native mammals, like this opossum, are classified as wildlife. Handling or trapping them without the requisite permits is an act that may violate state regulations according to Florida Statute § 379.3762. There are very specific rules regarding the trapping of animals such as opossums, designated as furbearers, limiting their entrapment to various types of live traps and snares that are to be checked every 24 hours. A listing of legal entrapment methods can be found here .

Click the image to visit the FWC's main website.

Accordingly, a device designed to trap and catapult an animal thirty feet in the air for the purposes of entertainment, does not fall under any sort of legal allowance. The device was designed solely for the purpose of launching the animal, not humanely containing it. Under Florida statute § 828.12, inflicting “unnecessary or unjustifiable pain or suffering” on any “living dumb creature” is defined as cruelty. The very nature of this stunt, catapulting an animal for engagement and likes on social media demonstrates forethought and deliberation with regards to it's execution which under the aforementioned cruelty statute is a key factor in establishing the ‘unnecessary suffering or torment’ clause.

These are only misdemeanors, but they do not exist in isolation. Instead they add to a number of legal issues that Ross has embroiled himself in since the beginning of his career, related to his pranks including charges for battery, trespassing, impersonating an officer and more. He’s been arrested at least six times since the beginning of his career, but has never truly faced serious consequences for his actions, instead being attributed simple fines and a few hours of community service. It does appear this tendency towards leniency by the legal system may have incentivized this behavior further, though hopefully this may change in the future.

But legal questions are only part of this issue. A video like this from such a prolific content creator only serves to further underscore the issue that we are attempting to work against. Cruelty and exploitation on social media is on the rise and it can often skirt by when packaged under the guise of entertainment and content. It exists amidst an ecosystem where content creators are constantly vying for the most sensationalist of stunts to drive an attention driven economy. The influence touted by social media figures is a currency that can drive change, for good or ill. For those younger, easily impressionable viewers, such content can further the normalization of abuse and mistreatment, where pain becomes a punchline and empathy atrophies behind the convenient distance of the screen. without the understanding that this is a defenseless living creature that did nothing to warrant this treatment.

Our concerns are not limited to a single content creator that has carefully curated the image of himself as a ‘wholesome prankster’ despite his myriad of legal issues. We would simply like to point out that this case simply reflects a broader pattern across social media where animals are often used as props and a source of viral spectacle, often to their significant detriment. Social Media and its algorithms reward engagement and escalation. The more ridiculous, the more outrageous and sensationalist, the greater the reach. Ethics are malleable and suffering pales in the face of engagement. In the case of Ross, we are fortunate that his stunt backfired and he faced considerable admonishment from his fanbase and commentary youtubers across the platform. This is a heartening turn and does indicate that the issue is not lost on many, at least when it is so visible and produced by someone so highly visible. But there are numerous content creators that do float below the radar of such a highly visible figures that continue to upload and create exploitative and abusive content . This investigation is a singular instance that exists within a greater ecosystem that we will continue to cover at The Humane Web Project.