PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A 28-year-old Upper Darby woman has been charged in what police described as “barbaric and disturbing” live YouTube videos that show her torturing and slowly killing animals in her kitchen.
Anigar Monsee, of Marshall Road in Upper Darby, is charged with four counts of felony aggravated cruelty to animals.
Bernhardt says People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) alerted police of at least four of her YouTube videos, according to Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt. They show a woman holding a knife up to live animals — including a rabbit, a chicken, a pigeon and frogs — while asking her viewers for more likes.
“We only got 21 likes and we have, like, 133 people watching now,” Monsee says in one of her live videos, encouraging her viewers in real-time. “We need to do better. If I reach 100 likes then I’m going to start cooking.”
The criminal complaint describes the actions in the videos as “agonizing and prolonged,” and the knife as “seemingly dull.” In one video, Monsee is accused of “prolong(ing) the torture by stopping to read and respond to comments” on the live YouTube video, then pausing again to “tap out a tune on the sink with the knife blade while singing.”
“Once she got, I guess in her opinion, the appropriate amount or the desired amount of likes and viewers over the period of 10 minutes, she harmed the chicken until she ultimately killed it,” Bernhardt said of one video.
In another video, she sings “Happy Death Day” to the tune of “Happy Birthday” while disemboweling a live frog, the complaint says.
The complaint also says when police played the videos for Monsee, she became visibly upset and asked to turn them off.
“I’ve seen some horrific things, and this is right up there with them,” Bernhardt said. “It’s deeply disturbing. The acts that are performed, they’re barbaric. … Who could do something like this?
“What’s more disturbing to me,” he said, “is there are people out there that are encouraging, liking, enticing this behavior.”
Some commenters suggested Monsee was preparing and cooking an animal, but Bernhardt disagreed.
“It is the furthest thing from a how to cook a pigeon or a rabbit or chicken. There’s nowhere near anything of that nature,” he said. “How do you get in the frame of mind to do that to an animal? I just, I really can’t wrap my head around it.”
Adding to Bernhardt’s frustration: The videos are still on YouTube. Police are working with the platform to get them removed.