Latest / Rachel Oates / Nail Tech Encapsulates LIVE Animals In Acrylic Nails
Transcript
- 0:00Hey everyone, and welcome back to a new video.
- 0:01I hope you're OK with voice over again today.
- 0:03And also I'm going to be showing you some cool gameplay in the
- 0:05background of this little zoo builder game I've been playing
- 0:08recently. These are just some of the
- 0:09tutorial levels, but they're really fun and it's really cute
- 0:11and I can't wait to dive into the game further.
- 0:13And I felt it was kind of appropriate for today's video
- 0:15because we are talking about animals and the welfare and
- 0:17well-being of them. So today's video is a little
- 0:19different in terms of topics of what I've been talking about
- 0:21recently and what I talk about quite often.
- 0:24But we are going to be talking about a nail technician who
- 0:26gained a lot of popularity on Instagram.
- 0:28She's also quite big on TikTok. She does have a YouTube channel
- 0:31but she's not as big over there. And she's obviously incredibly
- 0:34talented, although not all of her nail art is to my taste.
- 0:38She makes a lot of art with like very sexually explicit imagery
- 0:41on. But you know, hey, I'm not the
- 0:43one wearing it so it doesn't really matter, does it?
- 0:45And even if it's not to my taste, the execution is still
- 0:48damn good. So like, who am I to judge?
- 0:50What I am judging her for though, is the mistreatment and
- 0:53abuse of animals. She decided that she didn't just
- 0:56want to be known for her talent OR her risque artwork.
- 0:59She decided you want to be known for forcing small animals and
- 1:02insects to be a part of her art, if you can call it that at this
- 1:05point. And she did this by cruelly
- 1:07dangling mice by their tails for promotional shots, buying live
- 1:11earthworms and insects, and even encapsulating insects and live
- 1:15frogs inside her acrylic nails. This goes beyond anything that
- 1:21is acceptable or justifiable as just being creative.
- 1:25It is just cruel. So a little warning here.
- 1:28All the images and video clips I'm going to show you in this
- 1:30video are quite unpleasant, so don't feel like you have to
- 1:32watch. Put yourself first please.
- 1:35But this was the post which sparked all the outrage.
- 1:38And this is a screenshot from Reddit because she has deleted
- 1:41this post now. But as we'll see, it's not the
- 1:44first time she's done something like this.
- 1:46Like I say, this post has been deleted from Instagram, but the
- 1:49others I'm about to show you have not.
- 1:51She is still proudly displaying them on her social media.
- 1:55So here we can see that she has literally, and if you're
- 1:57listening to the audio only version on Spotify, I'm going to
- 1:59describe this because it's disturbing and she has clearly
- 2:03and literally encased live frogs and live ladybirds inside
- 2:09acrylic nails. Sure, they have tiny air holes,
- 2:13but this does not mean they're safe in there.
- 2:15In order for them to have been sealed in there, they've likely
- 2:18been exposed to a high intensity UV lamp.
- 2:20Plus, the materials that these nails are made of are not
- 2:22recommended as being safe around most animals.
- 2:26Experts don't even recommend that you apply these kind of
- 2:28nails around animals in the 1st place.
- 2:30Like if you've got a dog or cat in the room, don't be doing
- 2:33acrylic nails or gel nails or things like that.
- 2:35It's not safe. The powder and the fumes can
- 2:38cause respiratory respiratory problems for both humans and
- 2:41animals, including mammals and birds if breathed in.
- 2:44If ingested by an animal they can cause vomiting and other
- 2:47issues. And if any of the ingredients
- 2:49come into contact with animals skin, it can cause major skin
- 2:52irritation and rashes. Obviously it's different for
- 2:55different of animals, but does this and there's been no
- 2:58official studies done on frogs, unsurprisingly.
- 3:01But does this sound like something you think should be
- 3:05quite literally surrounding the skin of an innocent little frog?
- 3:08For frogs in particular, I feel like this is particularly
- 3:11dangerous as well, because for those of you who might not be
- 3:13familiar, frogs are amphibians belonging to an order called
- 3:17Anura or Anura I think. I haven't pronounced that right,
- 3:19I've only actually ever seen it written down.
- 3:21Sorry. I'm a reader, like a big reader,
- 3:22so sometimes I struggle with pronunciation if I've never
- 3:25heard a word set out loud. But this order of Anura or Anura
- 3:29or Anura I guess. And this order has been around
- 3:33for millions of years, with some of the first fossils dating back
- 3:36to around 180 million years ago, which is damn impressive.
- 3:40However, sadly, the number of frogs around the world are
- 3:44declining and many species are in real danger.
- 3:46It's the huge thing that not many people are aware of, but
- 3:49all frog populations are absolutely at risk.
- 3:52As Tim Halliday writes in his book The Book of Frogs, frogs
- 3:55and other amphibians are declining throughout the world,
- 3:58even within protected areas. It's now clear that amphibian
- 4:01declines are one manifestation of a major global extinction
- 4:05event, often referred to as a six mass extinction.
- 4:08There's too many SS in there. I struggle with that.
- 4:10And as Jules Howard writes the RSPB Frogs and Toads book, and
- 4:13this is specific to the UK but still relevant, recent
- 4:17statistics on amphibian declines speak for themselves.
- 4:20At the time of writing in 2018, amphibians are facing extinction
- 4:23at a rate of 211 times greater than would be expected for the
- 4:28taxonomic class. With 2100 of the 6966 known
- 4:33species at risk of dying out, this makes amphibians one of the
- 4:37most threatened groups of animals on the planet.
- 4:40For them, the clock is ticking. And there's many reasons for
- 4:43this decline, right? Fungal parasites causing
- 4:45disease, lack of access to clean water, invasive species taking
- 4:49over in some areas and so on. But with all these threats, it's
- 4:52clear that it should be important to try and protect
- 4:55frogs and toads, right? Not have a hand in killing more
- 4:58of them and encouraging other people to harm them more With
- 5:02your social media content. Now, frog skin is really, really
- 5:05interesting. In fact, all amphibian skin is
- 5:07really interesting because they essentially breathe through
- 5:10their skin and their skin is also permeable to water.
- 5:13So it's key for managing their hydration and their temperature
- 5:16level as well as their oxygen level.
- 5:18Frogs do have mounds and lungs, however, they use their skin to
- 5:22take in additional oxygen, but it needs to be moist for them to
- 5:25do this. If a frog's skin gets too dry,
- 5:27it can literally cause them to suffocate.
- 5:30This way of breathing, if you want to call it that, is
- 5:33actually called cutaneous respiration and it's really,
- 5:35really interesting. So TS Chem wrote a great
- 5:38description of it in his book Amphibians.
- 5:40A very short guide, but to try and summarise for you, skin has
- 5:44multiple layers, right? We know that's pretty much every
- 5:46being with skin. It has multiple layers on the
- 5:49dermis layer of the amphibian skin.
- 5:51There's this network of tonnes of capillaries and because the
- 5:54skin is permeable, these allow loads of oxygen to be absorbed
- 5:58directly into the bloodstream and carbon dioxide to be
- 6:00expelled again directly from it. These capillaries also directly
- 6:04take in water and it's only through this and the water
- 6:07content in frog's food that's actually ingesting in water.
- 6:10They don't drink through their mouths like me or you would,
- 6:13because water is essentially always passing in and out of
- 6:15frog's skin like this. It's really important that they
- 6:18stay in an environment which which is wet enough, or at least
- 6:20moist or humid enough, because if they cannot take in water
- 6:24from their surroundings, then their water just keeps
- 6:26evaporating from their skin and evaporating and evaporating with
- 6:29nothing to replace it. And they can easily die while
- 6:32trapped inside an acrylic nail, a notoriously dry environment.
- 6:36I just don't see how a frog would be able to absorb enough
- 6:39water to live, or at least not suffer greatly.
- 6:42But that's not all. Amphibians, like frogs, are
- 6:45ectotherms, which means they can't generate heat themselves
- 6:48and they rely on their environment to keep warm, but
- 6:50not too warm. If an environment is too cold,
- 6:53then the frog will be too cold and can't carry out basic life
- 6:55processes like digesting food or moving, but if it's too warm
- 6:59then the frog will overheat and die.
- 7:01The moistness of a frog's skin also plays a massive role in
- 7:05temperature regulation. So again, to remind you she's
- 7:08put an animal with poorer skin directly in contact with harmful
- 7:12chemicals, she's placed it in a small dry environment with no
- 7:16way to control their own temperature.
- 7:17It's a wonder that these frogs didn't near enough immediately
- 7:20die. These poor poor little guys.
- 7:22I also have to wonder and ask where did she get them from and
- 7:25if they survived, what did she do with them afterwards?
- 7:27She claimed her response that she released them apparently.
- 7:30But depending on where she is, that could be both illegal or
- 7:34dangerous for either the frog she's releasing or the natural
- 7:38frog population in that area. So according to Jules Howard,
- 7:41and this is just about in the UK, but it's still relevant to
- 7:44talk about right? He says it's illegal in the UK
- 7:47to release non-native species and has been for decades because
- 7:51this can cause like invasive species to essentially take over
- 7:53from native ones and put native species in danger of extinction.
- 7:57Right, so I'm no frog expert, but if you are maybe you can
- 8:00answer my questions here in the comments.
- 8:02Do we know what kind of frogs these are?
- 8:03And if they did buy some miracle survive being inside her nails
- 8:07like this for so long, what would happen if she did just
- 8:10release them into the wild? Would they survive?
- 8:12Would this be a danger to other wild frogs?
- 8:14Are there any laws about this sort of thing in America or is
- 8:17it just in the UK? I have a lot of questions.
- 8:19There's so much to think about with this kind of stuff when
- 8:22you're bringing animals into absolutely anything and so many
- 8:25people just don't think about it.
- 8:27Like I so I really love insects. You probably know this about me
- 8:32and I struggle with spiders. Can't, I mean, they're
- 8:34arachnids, but like I can't be around spiders.
- 8:36That's that's my limit. But most insects, I love them.
- 8:38I think they're really interesting.
- 8:40I love photographing them. I love painting them.
- 8:42And the last few months I've been really, really, really
- 8:45wanting to raise caterpillars into butterflies.
- 8:47And I've been researching it for so damn long now because sure,
- 8:51you can just like order kit online and then bam, you get
- 8:53caterpillars to raise. But it turns out there's way
- 8:55more to think about than just that because not all butterflies
- 8:58you raise will be able to survive in the wild if you
- 9:01release them. So it just seems cruel and
- 9:04that's something that I want to avoid.
- 9:05But on the other hand, many butterflies bred in captivity
- 9:08can carry certain diseases that wild butterflies don't, you
- 9:12know, have like the ability to fight off and protect themselves
- 9:15from. So if you raise them and release
- 9:16them, it can cause a lot of harm to local butterfly populations.
- 9:19So I'm trying to be super, super thoughtful about like what
- 9:24species of Caterpillar and butterfly I get, how I look
- 9:27after them when I look after, because now it's kind of getting
- 9:30too late in the year. I think I don't want to do it in
- 9:32the summer when it's too warm. So there's so much to think
- 9:35about and I'm trying to be super careful and super considerate
- 9:37before I even think about buying anything to do this because the
- 9:42well-being of the animals I raise and the well-being of the
- 9:46animals who live naturally around me is the most important
- 9:50thing. You know, these aren't toys and
- 9:52play things. These are real living creatures
- 9:55that you've got to think about. And it's a shame that people
- 9:57like this nail technician don't take time to research and
- 9:59consider these things before deciding to use animals as
- 10:02props. Let's move on a little bit
- 10:03though. But first I just want to say if
- 10:04you do want to learn more about frogs and amphibians in general,
- 10:07I got some book recommendations in the source document linked
- 10:09below. I just think they're
- 10:10fascinating. I love frogs.
- 10:12And so you'll notice in that post it wasn't just frogs, but
- 10:15ladybirds that she encapsulated in her nails too.
- 10:18And scrolling back through her account you can see this is not
- 10:21the first time she has done this to ladybirds.
- 10:23Look at these images and watch this video one of her captions
- 10:26reads. I had so much fun creating these
- 10:28ladybug exhibit nails. Even though they gave me a bit
- 10:31of hassle at the end, it was so worth it.
- 10:34So again, if you just listen to the audio of this, you may not
- 10:37be able to see this, but it's absolutely horrifying.
- 10:39There are maybe 15 to 20 ladybirds stuffed into each
- 10:42acrylic nail, and they are just piled up on top of each other.
- 10:45Some are clearly distressed, Some are stuck on their back,
- 10:48unable to move. Others are completely inactive,
- 10:51as though they might already be dead.
- 10:53One view of 1 of the nails shows about 10 of them piled up on top
- 10:56of each other, gathered around the entrance to the nail as
- 10:59though they're like trampling on each other, desperate to get
- 11:01out. Like it's disgusting.
- 11:02And I'm sorry, but this is not art.
- 11:04Again, I'll say it's cruelty. There's another process video of
- 11:07her making these nails and this one is even more disturbing
- 11:09because you can see her putting the ladybirds into the nails and
- 11:12she is so damn rough with them. Again, for the people listening
- 11:16to audio only, you can see her using both tweezers and her
- 11:19fingers to pick up these insects and she just grabs them and
- 11:23squeezes them to the point where it's clear she's doing damage.
- 11:25So again, you guys might know I have a massive soft spot for
- 11:28ladybirds. They are some of my favourite
- 11:29little beetles and well, actually the beetles absolutely
- 11:32love beetles. And this year in particular, me
- 11:35and Kyra have been finding so many ladybirds in our garden, on
- 11:39our walks. It's been so much fun.
- 11:41And actually, did you know, according to Richard Cormont,
- 11:43there's actually 47 ladybird species resident in the UK and
- 11:46more than 6000 species worldwide.
- 11:49They are found on every continent except Antarctica.
- 11:51And I think that is damn cool. I just, I love them.
- 11:54They come in all different sizes, shapes, colours.
- 11:57They're gorgeous. Now, as I said, Ladybirds are
- 12:00actually a type of beetle, and their abdomen is really cool
- 12:02because they have their regular flight wings that kind of folds
- 12:06up on top of their abdomen. And then on top of this, they
- 12:08have a second set of wings which have actually hardened to
- 12:11perform a, to form a protective casing called an Alytra or
- 12:16Alytra. Alytra again, I hope I'm
- 12:18pronouncing that right. I've only seen it written down.
- 12:20And these now hardened wings form a protective case over
- 12:23their flying wings. And they're the bits which are
- 12:26brightly coloured and patterned, which is kind of how we identify
- 12:28ladybirds. The red bits with the black
- 12:30spots, they're the hardened wings.
- 12:33Really damn cool. Underneath these two layers of
- 12:36wings are the abdomen, and this is where all the ladybirds
- 12:39important organs are. The digestive system,
- 12:41reproductive organs, everything. The nail tech, as you'll see in
- 12:45this video, used her fingers and tweezers to pick these ladybirds
- 12:48up, squashing the back end of their abdomens and therefore all
- 12:51their internal organs. And she squashed and dented the
- 12:54elytra too, and clearly put pressure on the delicate wings
- 12:58underneath. She claims she released all of
- 13:00these ladybirds after her video. But if they hadn't, but if they
- 13:04had damaged internal organs or were unable to fly because they
- 13:08had damaged wings, or unable to protect themselves because
- 13:10they're hardened outer shell wings were damaged, then they
- 13:14probably just died anyway. And you might just be sorry.
- 13:17Thinking it's just some bugs were some meta.
- 13:19But ladybirds aren't just bugs. They're a really damn important
- 13:23part of our ecosystem. Again, in every continent except
- 13:26Antarctica, all ladybird species have different diets.
- 13:30Some eat plants or fungi, but most primarily eat aphids and
- 13:34scale insects scale. If you're not familiar with
- 13:37them, you might have passed them on trees and plants without
- 13:40noticing because they they tend to kind of like sit in clusters
- 13:43on the body. We had a massive scale
- 13:47infestation on the trees outside of my building actually a couple
- 13:50of years back and they were absolutely everywhere.
- 13:53And they can be invasive, they can cause a lot of damage.
- 13:56They are essentially parasitic. And it's the same with aphids
- 14:00who can eat through so many plants if their population is
- 14:03not kept, if their population is not kept under control,
- 14:07ladybirds help keep these population levels in balance.
- 14:11If we don't take care of ladybirds, we end up with way
- 14:14more aphids and scale insects and other kind of insects that
- 14:19will damage plants. And then we end up with less
- 14:20plants overall. And then that causes a knock on
- 14:23effect and so on. Ladybirds are essential to
- 14:26keeping our ecosystems in balance.
- 14:29This isn't all though. So this nail tech, she also had
- 14:31a history of buying packs of worms to pose alongside her worm
- 14:34inspired nail art and she and she fed one of the worms like
- 14:38through a hole in her nail and like dangled it and stuff.
- 14:40And this wasn't as cruel as her like live encapsulations, but
- 14:44still seems inconsiderate and unnecessary in the grand scheme
- 14:47of things. Another time she encapsulated 2
- 14:50ants in her nails. Now thankfully, like I say,
- 14:52there were only two of them rather than 10s of them, but
- 14:55that's still 2 ants too many. And as you can see from the
- 14:58footage, if you're for watching this as a video, and she was
- 15:01really rough with these little guys as well.
- 15:03She was using tweezers to squeeze that little bodies,
- 15:05which again, lightly caught likely caused a lot of damage.
- 15:09Again, ants I have a soft spot for and I'm actually talking
- 15:12about them a lot in an essay titled Navigation in my latest
- 15:15book Outside, which I'm officially announcing later this
- 15:20week. But it is it is available to buy
- 15:22now if you want to check it out. And if you do want to find out
- 15:26more about ants, then An Empire of Ants is one of my favourite
- 15:30nonfiction books of all time. I absolutely love it.
- 15:32Again, I'll leave it mentioned in the source document.
- 15:37There's also an example of her dangling a mouse by the tail as
- 15:40promo of one of her mouse themed nail arts.
- 15:43Right? And this is so damn dangerous
- 15:45for the mouse as it can easily cause spinal or tail damage and
- 15:48leave the mouse either in extreme pain or unable to walk
- 15:51properly which could very easily kill it.
- 15:53Again I have to ask, where did she get this mouse from and what
- 15:57did she do with it afterwards? Now her initial response to all
- 16:00of this was interesting because her first response was straight
- 16:02up and non apology. It was just I'm not changing you
- 16:08all suck. It's gross.
- 16:09The only screenshot of this I could find was this one but I do
- 16:13think she maybe wrote more but this is all I can find online at
- 16:16the minute where she said. I tried to imagine myself doing
- 16:19other content that no longer involves insects and I just
- 16:22can't do it y'all. Not only would I be limiting
- 16:25myself from my full potential, but I wouldn't enjoy creating
- 16:28content knowing it's a certain area I can't touch because some
- 16:31people are too sensitive about it.
- 16:33Honestly that's just life. I see a tonne of posts I don't
- 16:36agree with yet I never tried to belittle anyone, so this says a
- 16:39lot about some of y'all's character.
- 16:40I've always vowed to stay true to myself no matter what.
- 16:43This was my first mini. Let's cancel me.
- 16:46That's her username, so at the time that seemed like the right
- 16:49solution to it. But no more kissy emoji.
- 16:53It infuriates me, it really does.
- 16:55So she wasn't sorry, she didn't care.
- 16:57She wants just continue to abuse and harm animals in the name of
- 17:00her full potential and creativity and just thought
- 17:03people were being too sensitive about it.
- 17:05However, people continued to be disgusted and as brand she
- 17:11worked with found out as the owner of the salon she worked at
- 17:15found out, she began to lose brand partnerships.
- 17:18She lost access to the salon that she worked at.
- 17:22They essentially fired her or decided to let her go because in
- 17:25their words, they found the videos disturbing because they
- 17:28are. And they also said that as
- 17:30animal lovers, we will never support, excuse or enable harm
- 17:34to animals. And this finally LED her to make
- 17:36an apology. But again, if you need all of
- 17:39that, like I'm, I'm OK with people taking time to reflect on
- 17:43things and be like, you know, because you know, when you have
- 17:45a lot of people hating on you for something, you can have knee
- 17:47jerk emotional reactions. I do like I have in the past,
- 17:50absolutely. I get it.
- 17:52So if you want to take some time to reflect before you respond or
- 17:55look like that's fine. But the sense I get from this is
- 18:01that she didn't suddenly learn and do more and that's why she
- 18:04decided to apologise. She was like, oh crap, I'm
- 18:06losing money. Better make an apology like
- 18:10that's, that's all this is. So she ended up saying hi guys.
- 18:14For those of you who may not know, I did a live frog
- 18:16encapsulation nail set almost a week ago and received a lot of
- 18:20backlash about it being animal cruelty slash abuse.
- 18:22It was not my knowledge that it was considered animal abuse due
- 18:25to the fact they were not physically harmed, had multiple
- 18:28air holes and were only in a small space for a short amount
- 18:30of time. However, I want to apologise to
- 18:32anyone who was upset by the post.
- 18:34My intention was never to cause harm or distress.
- 18:37The frogs were unharmed and handled with care, but you
- 18:39understand that my creative vision did not come across as
- 18:41intended. I truly value and respect all
- 18:44living creatures doubt and we'll be more mindful in the future
- 18:48about how my art slash creative, how my art slash creativity may
- 18:52be perceived. I also want to remind everyone
- 18:55that we've all fallen short or made choices in life.
- 18:58We might rethink today. It can be easy to forget our own
- 19:01missteps before casting judgement or threats towards
- 19:03someone else who you know nothing about.
- 19:07I've been respectful towards everyone despite the belittling,
- 19:09ignorant, hateful comments, mentions, and DMS. All I can ask
- 19:13is that you guys return the same respect given to you.
- 19:16To all my social nail tech besties, friends, and
- 19:19supporters, I truly thank you guys for standing by my side
- 19:22amongst all this chaos and understanding both sides.
- 19:25I love you guys for life and like I say, I might respect this
- 19:28a little bit more if it wasn't only in response to her losing
- 19:31money and job opportunities. She clearly doesn't actually
- 19:34give a damn about the Admirals, as evidenced by her response and
- 19:38how in this one she simply says she's only going to be more
- 19:41mindful about how a art such creativity may be perceived, not
- 19:46more mindful about how she treats animals.
- 19:48It's very clear to me that she's learned absolutely nothing and
- 19:51doesn't understand what she actually did that was wrong, and
- 19:54I find it infuriating. And I get her caring about her
- 19:57art, I do. And I do think there are ways to
- 20:00include. Animals and a relationship with
- 20:02animals in our artwork in ethical ways.
- 20:05I I absolutely believe that. And again, sorry to keep
- 20:08mentioning it, but this is actually one of the things that
- 20:10I talk about briefly in one of the essays in my new book,
- 20:12Outside. I talk about the way our
- 20:15relationship with the natural world can influence our art and
- 20:18how our art can help influence the way people think a little
- 20:21bit more about the natural world around us and environmental
- 20:24issues that are really damn important.
- 20:26One of the examples I give is including photographing animals,
- 20:30interacting with them or not in the process.
- 20:33But there's plenty of other examples too.
- 20:35So for example, if you've seen some of my old videos, you might
- 20:38know I once made a joke video with my dog.
- 20:40Kyra called My dog is a better artist than Picasso.
- 20:43And I called her poor Casso. And it was a whole thing.
- 20:45And I and I let her pick out some paint tubes and then I
- 20:50covered a canvas with paint swatches and the colours she
- 20:52picked out covered that inkling film applied Kyra's favourite
- 20:55dog safe peanut butter on top and then let her lick away at it
- 20:59and her tongue licking up this peanut butter spread out all the
- 21:02paint, creating this like beautiful, unique piece of
- 21:04artwork. And it was a really, really fun
- 21:06activity for us to do together. We really loved it.
- 21:09And another example is, you know, there are artists who use
- 21:12non-toxic paint and they allow various animals to walk through
- 21:15it and then onto canvas, right? Sometimes it's little ants.
- 21:19So their tiny feet are the things trailing the paint
- 21:21around. And we get to see them walk
- 21:22their usual pathways. And it's not only creating
- 21:24something beautiful, but it's an informative piece about how Ant
- 21:28navigation works, which funnily enough, is something else I talk
- 21:31about in my book. And it's just quite relevant to
- 21:33this video. Isn't it great timing?
- 21:36Others do it with animals like otters and ferrets, so you can
- 21:38see their tiny paw prints. And they'll also roll around on
- 21:41camp on the canvas. And they'll also roll around on
- 21:44the canvas. They sometimes have ice cubes in
- 21:45there that they play with and it creates like these cool effects
- 21:48on campus and like, they just have fun with it, you know?
- 21:50And it's these animals having a really good time.
- 21:53The paint is non-toxic. It's completely safe.
- 21:56In those cases, precautions are taken to make sure these animals
- 21:58are never in danger and never placed anywhere against their
- 22:01will. They're not made to do this.
- 22:03There are unethical examples. So, so for example, a while back
- 22:06there was this viral video going around of this elephant who
- 22:09would paint pictures of himself and other elephants.
- 22:12And it was like, Oh my God, that's really cute.
- 22:13Look how clever he is. He's self aware.
- 22:15But like, and everyone was going crazy for it until it turned out
- 22:17that these Beautiful Creatures had been trained to just move
- 22:20their brush in certain ways in response to certain stimuli.
- 22:23And the way that they were trained was often cruel.
- 22:26It was tiring. Sometimes violence was involved.
- 22:29It was absolutely not OK. There are other ways I use
- 22:33nature in my artwork. So I really like to collect like
- 22:36small wildflowers. I never overpick them, but I
- 22:39sometimes collect small wildflowers and I, I have a
- 22:43flower press. I press them in and then I
- 22:45create art and paintings and and beautiful like, you know, pieces
- 22:50of artwork out of these dried flowers.
- 22:52I often use them to do things called cyanotype prints, which
- 22:56is essentially like sun printing or sun painting where you expose
- 23:00a piece of paper to the sunlight and you can put objects on top
- 23:03of it. So I like to use pressed flowers
- 23:04on top and it blocks out areas of UV light and then you pop it
- 23:08in water and it kind of like activates it all and you get
- 23:11these amazing like blue and white prints of like these
- 23:14natural. It's just it's really damn cool.
- 23:16It's using flowers in the sun to create beautiful artwork.
- 23:19Love doing that kind of thing. So again, are there ethical ways
- 23:23to use nature in your art? Yes.
- 23:26There's also plenty of unethical ways as well, and you just need
- 23:29to be careful. You need to be aware, you need
- 23:31to not over consume, you need to not hurt anyone.
- 23:34You need to know the consequences of what you're
- 23:36doing. And I think we can have lots of
- 23:39debates about is this like ethical?
- 23:41Is this not, is this more or less ethical than this and so
- 23:43on. But I think what we can all
- 23:44agree on is that violently picking up living beings and
- 23:48stuffing them inside a tiny container made of poisonous
- 23:51substances is not an ethical way of including animals in your
- 23:55artwork. There was absolutely no way to
- 23:58justify it and I just don't think she realises this all
- 24:01gives a damn about it. And that's kind of why I want to
- 24:03talk about this today. And she's literally just gone
- 24:06back to posting regular content now and videos like nothing
- 24:09happened. And I'm just not sure what to
- 24:11think. I actually saw her.
- 24:12She did nail of doctor Sandra Lee, who sometimes goes by
- 24:16doctor pimple popper. She's like a dermatologist who
- 24:19she got massive doing like literally like spot picking
- 24:23videos and dermatology videos. And I think she ended up with
- 24:26like a TLC show and stuff and she's huge, absolutely huge.
- 24:29And she did nail out of her. And then Sandra Lee commented
- 24:33and was like, Oh my God, this is amazing.
- 24:34Thank you so much. And now I've seen that comment
- 24:37has been deleted. So I think she might know this
- 24:39woman's history because she's probably been told, but for a
- 24:43time she didn't. And she was supporting her.
- 24:44And it's like a little little frustrating to see, you know, I
- 24:49mean, can people make, I mean, can people make mistakes and
- 24:52learn and grow from them? Yes, absolutely.
- 24:55I am fully supportive of that. That is exactly what we want to
- 24:58see. I'm just not sure I believe that
- 25:00that's what's happened in this situation and I'm finding it a
- 25:03little difficult to stomach. If she'd been like, I'm sorry I
- 25:06was ignorant, I've educated myself about frogs and insects
- 25:09and mice and I will never do this again because of this, this
- 25:12and this reason. I'd be more supportive.
- 25:14But as it stands with what she said publicly and how she's been
- 25:17acting, I just don't believe she actually cares about the
- 25:21well-being of animals or insects at all.
- 25:24And I don't believe she fully understands what she did wrong.
- 25:28So I just feel the need to remind you that animals are not
- 25:31accessories. They are not just little toys to
- 25:33be used and poked and prodded and passed around.
- 25:36They're well-being absolutely matters to.
- 25:37And we can't just stuff them into enclosed spaces and squash
- 25:41their little bodies in the name of art.
- 25:43That's just completely wrong. But yeah, I know this was a
- 25:47shorter video than normal, but I just felt the need to have a
- 25:49little rant about this and hopefully educate you a little
- 25:51bit about frogs and insects in the process.
- 25:54And I hope you've learned something.
- 25:56As always, there's a source document linked down below.
- 25:58If you'd like to help support my work you can do over on Patreon
- 26:01or sending me a one off donation on PayPal that really helps.
- 26:04Everything goes back into my channel and my day-to-day living
- 26:07expenses of rent and bills and also just buying like new
- 26:13things, like, you know, books that I can talk about in videos
- 26:15and camera equipment if I need it, my editing package,
- 26:20subscriptions, all that useful stuff.
- 26:24If you don't want to support my channel, I do have merch
- 26:26available, plenty of it with adorable animal imagery on.
- 26:30I've got this really cute little snail art design that I drew
- 26:33myself. I worked with a great artist
- 26:35called Amy on this beautiful octopus and book and fungi
- 26:38design, which again, I love. And I've got tonnes of stuff
- 26:41over on my merch store that you can check out.
- 26:43You can get a Silly Goose T-shirt, you can get some Beetle
- 26:46T-shirts, you can get absolutely anything at all.
- 26:48But yeah, that's just where I want to end this.
- 26:50Thank you so much for watching and listening today.
- 26:52I appreciate you guys so much. Please let me know your thoughts
- 26:54down in the comments. Be kind to each other.
- 26:56Please. Just have a wonderful rest of
- 26:58your day. Take care and I'll see you again
- 26:59soon. Bye.