Sometimes it must be really stressful to be a celebrity. It seems that almost everything celebrities do open themselves up to some amount of criticism. Now, some celebrities are drawing backlash for dressing up their cats.
Take Jennifer Garner, who dressed her feline, Moose, up to look like Dolly Parton. The movie star is known to dress her pet up in various outfits. But the animal doesn't always look amused. Garner even quipped, "I promise he loves me." Other celebrities like Kate Beckinsale and Lupita Nyong'o also have dressed up their pets for social media.
But now, they're drawing backlash. Feline charity Cats Protection accused them of putting their pets in distress. Additionally, they criticize celebrities for encouraging the trend of dressing up pets for a quick photo for likes.
Nicky Trevorrow, a cat behavior expert at Cats Protection, told Daily Mail, "We are worried that celebrities who dress up their cats make it look fun and glamorous. And normalize it so that others will do the same. Cats don't understand why they are being forced into outfits which are not easy to get on. Which can be heavy, hot and itchy, and have distressingly loud velcro fastenings or zips and buttons."
Celebrities And Their Cats
She continued, "They don't understand why they can't move properly, making them fearful they can't run away and hide from danger, and they don't know why they can't regulate their own body temperature through grooming because there is clothing on their fur."
According to Trevorrow, the organization is worried about the cats owned by celebrities for this reason. Cats have a tenancy to shut down when stressed.
"We actually worry more about the cats that don't protest and try to escape being put into clothes,'"she said. "People think this is because they are happy and relaxed, but in fact the cats will be so distressed that the only way they can cope is to shut down and disassociate from the situation."
Trevorrow suggests that celebrities stop trying to break the internet.
She said, "We are very aware that pictures of cats 'break the internet' and are incredibly popular, but there are alternatives to dressing pets in uncomfortable clothing and disregarding their needs. People can use photo editing to dress their cat up digitally, or they can create incredible toys for cats to use on their own terms, like cardboard castles, which look great on social media.'
