TikToker Faces Backlash For Choosing To Help Animals Over Humans, Gives A Cat A Blanket Instead Of To A Homeless Person—"Let Them Fend For Themselves, I'm Gonna Save The Animal"

Influencer and TikToker Kirby Johnson (@kirby_j) is facing backlash for stating she'd choose to save animals over humans. "Call me a devil, say I lack empathy if you want, but if there's a choice between helping a human and helping an animal –  110% of the time, I'm helping that animal," she explained, adding, "Unless it's, like, there's children involved or, like, a very old person." 

"But, like, a middle-aged adult that can fend for themselves, let them fend for themselves – I'm gonna help the animal," she said. Johnson, who has 2.8 million followers, revealed her concerns when she spotted a homeless man with a cat. She said she "borderline stalked" the man to ensure that his pet was getting taken care of. Johnson then brings the homeless man cat food because she wants to "make sure this cat's having a good life." 

Johnson admitted that she would have stolen his cat if the unhoused man did not take good care of it. She claims the situation keeps her awake at night since the homeless man is "progressively getting worse." According to the influencer, she's more worried about the animal than the man. "My biggest fear is something will happen to this man, and no one's gonna be there to take care of his cat," she said.

It had apparently started raining hard in Johnson's neighborhood, so she located the man and gave him cat food and a blanket to keep his pet warm. "Please use this for your cat – you can use this for yourself, too, that's fine – but please use it for the cat!" she told him. 

Johnson’s video received major criticism from social media users, and she’s since turned off the comments on her video. Screenshots show that a lot of people were also in agreement with her before the comment section was disabled.

Another user on the platform, @rejectclown, garnered 30,000 likes after responding to Johnson’s TikTok. “If you ever need a good example of liberal white girl feminism, just show them this,” she said. “Like, you can literally tell by how completely stunned she is that a homeless person could possibly care about their pet and make it a top priority regardless of if they’re on the streets or not.”

@rejectclown continued, “Also the whole, like, ‘I’ll let impoverished people suffer and die, but I’m gonna save the cat, though!’” 

A Twitter user uploaded Johnson’s video and wrote, “This is so f*cking gross but so common. Unhoused people have their pets stolen by ‘animal lovers’ all the time, who don't give a f*ck about people suffering,” tweeted @ahouse4all. “How have you lost all sense of empathy where you will give a cat a blanket but not a person?”

Kirby Johnson Addresses the Backlash

Johnson addressed the negative feedback in another upload, saying, "The comment was so negative saying that I'm an evil monster for helping this man's cat and not helping him."

She later added that she was concerned because the unhoused man was always "tweaking." Johnson said her way of helping the man was by giving him cat food. "Again, I don't think I should be ridiculed for wanting to give this man cat food! That's not a crime! And that does help him!"

However, it's important to note that most people weren't upset at Johnson because she provided a homeless man with cat food – as others have pointed out, users were upset about the lack of empathy she showed in her first TikTok.

"People are upset with you because you stated in plain language that you value the life of an animal over the life of a human being," @its.maddie.c explains. She later adds, "The way you spoke of this man was nothing short of unkind. You spoke of him as if he was a nuisance, a danger, a pest, and that a whole human being who is currently suffering the ongoing trauma of living on the streets – that was unempathetic."

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