Hasbulla issues statement on cat abuse video: "You are attacking me for nothing"

Hasbulla Magomedov has responded to strong backlash after footage emerged of him allegedly abusing a cat.

The 20-year-old internet personality, who boasts 8.2 million followers on Instagram, was seen pulling the ear of his pet Barsik, before striking the cat on her head.

The 17-second footage appeared to originate from a YouTube video uploaded by Hasbulla himself before being swiftly deleted.

"I honestly don't get the buzz surrounding the guy anyway. I find him highly irritable, and this video only fuels that fire," one person hit back, while another added: "What did poor kitty do to deserve that?"

A third wrote: "The otherwise quite funny and friendly hasbulla is being not funny at all here. Despicable actually."

Another said: “I used to like Hasbulla but this is disgusting, that cat needs to be taken away from him. That poor cat.”

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Hasbulla has since shared a video statement to Twitter in which he claims to have pulled the cat's ear "gently" because it was misbehaving. He believes that people are "attacking [him] for nothing".

He said: "Those brothers who think that I was beating the cat, pulled the ear, this and that, I pulled the ear gently.

"And I know that people are waiting for the moment [that] if I write something wrong to just attack me like this. Like, ‘You do this, you do that.’

"She [the cat called ‘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… the most lovely animal is a cat and when she disobeyed I scolded her a little and you are attacking me for nothing."

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