Humaid Abdullah Albuqaish, who has over seven million followers on Instagram, lives in Sharjah near Dubai. The millionaire keeps more than 60 tigers, lions, bears, snakes and monkeys on his property. In his most popular videos, he feeds bears with pizza, poses with tigers in front of his Lamborghini or sleeps with lions in a box-spring bed. "My animals love the photos,” he explains. "Keeping wild animals privately is now banned in the United Arab Emirates, but that's not a problem for me. I have simply registered a private zoo.”
The Dalmatians Khaleesi and Django are famous: more than 166,000 people follow their Instagram account. Their owner Maria Bläser earns her living with photos and videos of the dogs. She’s a "petfluencer”, a neologism made up of "pet” and "influencer”. A job that can be very lucrative. But why are petfluencers so successful? And how much stress does posing in front of the camera cause the animals?
Wiebke Plasse from the World Animal Protection Society (Welttierschutzgesellschaft) in Berlin often sees petfluencing as a misunderstood love of animals that can result in cruelty. She and her colleagues conduct undercover research on social networks to track down animal suffering. She sees major problems with Insta-Animals: unnatural situations in which animals are forced into crazy costumes and torturous videos with "funny accidents” that can lead to serious injuries. The animal rights activist is clear: "No likes for animal suffering!”
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