The YouTuber who hit her dog in a video and then accidentally posted the footage reportedly won't face animal-cruelty charges
- Brooke Houts, a YouTuber, accidentally uploaded raw footage to her channel last month that showed her hitting and spitting at her dog.
- Police have determined no crime was committed and Houts won't face charges, BuzzFeed reports. Officials would only tell Business Insider they were "aware of the matter."
- The Los Angeles Police Department initially launched an animal-cruelty investigation into the incident with Houts, who apologized to fans and defended herself as a person with "an immense love for animals."
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Police have reportedly ruled "there was no crime" committed by the YouTuber seen hitting and appearing to spit on her dog in a video she accidentally uploaded to her YouTube channel in August.
YouTuber Brooke Houts will not face any charges of animal cruelty or animal abuse, BuzzFeed News reported. The Los Angeles Police Department initially opened up an investigation into the matter last month, but it's since closed the case, according to BuzzFeed. The LAPD would only tell Business Insider on Tuesday afternoon that it was "aware of the matter" pertaining to Houts and her dog.
Last month, Houts made headlines after she accidentally uploaded an unedited video to her YouTube channel featuring her Doberman dog named Sphinx. In the video, Houts is seen on at least three separate occasions screaming at and smacking her dog after he playfully jumps up on her while she's trying to film the YouTube video.
Soon after the video was widely shared online, LAPD told Business Insider that its animal-cruelty task force was aware of the situation with Houts and was "looking into the matter." But a police spokesperson told BuzzFeed News on Tuesday that it had decided not to press charges.
"Animal Task Force looked into the matter - obviously they saw the video the public had seen," police told BuzzFeed News. "They determined it didn't rise to the level of animal cruelty."
The video in question was quickly deleted from YouTube, but others were quick to upload their own versions, and Houts was subsequently reamed online.
In one clip from the video, the dog jumps on Houts while she's filming for the video. In turn, Houts holds down the dog, yells "stop" at him, and appears to spit on him just out of frame of the camera - although Houts has said she didn't do that.
In the days of backlash, Houts issued an apology on Twitter to "anyone who has been effected [sic] negatively by the footage." In an extensive statement written in the iPhone Notes app, Houts wrote that she had been having a "less than exceptional" week and said she was showing him "as a dog parent" that his behavior was unacceptable.