YouTuber ties dog to balloons so it can 'fly', arrested
New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Thursday said that they had arrested 27-year-old YouTuber, Gaurav Sharma, for tying a bunch of helium balloons to his pomeranian's collar to try and make the dog "fly", hence risking the pet's life.
Sharma had recorded his attempt to make his dog "fly" and uploaded it on the YouTube channel "GAURAVZONE", which has over 4.15 million subscribers. The 27-year-old is a resident of South Delhi's Panchsheel Vihar in Malviya Nagar.
According to the Delhi Police, the Malviya Nagar Police Station had received a complaint from one Gaurav Gupta who was associated with People for Animals, about the incident.
The organisation is one of India's largest animal welfare organisations, on behalf of which Gupta, in his complaint, alleged that Sharma had recently put out a video in which he was seen tying his pet dog with helium balloons and thereby making the dog fly in the air and hence risking its life.
DCP (South) Atul Kumar Thakur said that the accused has been booked under the relevant sections of the Disaster Management Act and Prevention to Cruelty to Animal Act. "He said that he is a YouTuber and he made this video for that purpose only," the DCP said.
"The role of Sharma's mother will also be investigated if and when the same comes up during the probe," one senior police officer said.
The video was posted on Sharma's YouTube channel on May 21. In it, his dog, Dollar, can be seen tied to a bunch of helium balloons and floating in the air.
However, the Youtuber deleted the video after receiving backlash from his viewers.
In another video posted three days ago, Sharma was seen issuing an apology by claiming that he got influenced by foreign YouTubers and that he loved his dog like his own child. He further asked viewers not to replicate the act.
Significantly, in the apology video that Sharma released on May 23, he responded to criticisms of putting his dog's life at risk by saying that he had taken all possible safety measures to make sure Dollar would be safe but had chosen not to include safety preparations in the video.
