Introduction: It is now possible to spend several days watching YouTube videos of slugs and snails. These videos run the gamut from documentaries (both professional and amateur), to races, feature films, intensive farming, shell painting, gastronomy as well as encounters with electricity, copper, parasites, salt and human feet. The film industry has safe-guards for the treatment of animals on motion picture sets. Does YouTube have rules about videos featuring live gastropods?
Methodology: About 150 YouTube videos of living slugs and snails were watched and collected. These videos were sorted and assessed as to the appearance of cruelty. If a video was deemed to depict a slug or snail being mistreated, a complaint was sent to YouTube and the response was recorded.
Main Findings: There are no cruelty to animal laws protecting gastropods, and there is scant literature as to whether or not gastropods can experience pain. Nonetheless, YouTube quickly removes videos depicting cruelty following a report of harm being seen to be done to these animals.
Principal Conclusions and Implications for the Field: Although several countries have laws protecting some molluscs, such as cephalopods, there are no laws protecting gastropods. This is in part due to some uncertainty within the scientific community as to whether gastropods are capable of experiencing pain. In the public realm opinions are also mixed, as evidenced by the posting of snail movies on YouTube that depict violent acts, and provoke both complaints and comments of support. Despite a lack of legislation protecting molluscs, YouTube viewers are able to stop the showing of videos of slugs and snails being mistreated by filing individual complaints. Should YouTube be encouraged to go a step further and develop algorithms to actively prevent these videos being posted at all?