Social media star Hasbulla has defended his recent actions in a video in which he pulled on his cat's ear after backlash from his fans.
The Russian influencer, whose full name is Hasbulla Magomedov, was under fire from social media users in the past few days after video emerged of him becoming aggressive with his cat Barsik. The 20-year-old, who looks considerably younger due to his dwarfism, took on mass criticism online for the footage, and has clarified he was simply disciplining his animal.
Magomedov is a known animal lover, with his cats featuring prominently on his social media where he has tens of millions of followers. But fans believed that he went too far in his video, with many taking to Twitter to mock the Russian star before he posted a response video captioned "For everyone asking me without the full picture".
"Those brothers who think that I was beating the cat, pulled the ear this and that, I pulled the ear gently," he explained in a recent video. "And I know that people are waiting for the moment, if I write something wrong, to just attack me like this. Like, 'you do this, you do that'.
"She [Barsik] was misbehaving and I just pulled the ear and that's it. I love my cat more than you. If I didn't love the cat, I wouldn't have it at home. My most lovely animal is a cat. And when she disobeyed, I scolded her a little. And you are attacking me for nothing."
Fans appeared to be relatively positive in the responses, with one joking that they "Never thought we’d reach the day where even Hasbulla is getting cancelled." Another added: "Haters will always come for the guy at the top, they are waiting for the kings down fall, but it will never happen."
However, some were unimpressed with his method of disciplining the animal. "My only criterion is that cats don't learn from it," one fan noted. "You only make her nervous and afraid of you in general. Your cat is not human. She does not understand He clearly loves his cat."
What do you make of Hasbulla's recent antics? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
The social media star was recently signed to the UFC on a promotional basis, with merchandise baring his likeness selling massive numbers for the MMA promotion. President Dana White is a big fan of Magomedov's, as are YouTube stars the Nelk boys, who have taken him under their wing in America as he attempts to broaden his appeal
White has previously heaped praise on the 20-year-old saying: "Hasbulla's awesome, it was good to have him here. He flew out here [to Las Vegas] for this event and he's been great. What the Nelk Boys have done for this guy is unbelievable. When they went out to Russia, this is how powerful Hasbulla is, they did all this cool s*** with him.
"And they said 'we're going to make a Hasbulla Full Send t-shirt'. They sold $500,000-worth of Hasbulla t-shirts in like 48 hours, something ridiculous like that. They gave him half the money for the stuff. We did a deal with Hasbulla, we signed him to a deal, he's going to be in the video game, he gets his own fight kit and he got paid for that. That dude's doing some cool s*** and making some big money."
