If you’ve ever wanted to know what 25 furious kittens sound like the morning after being neutered and spayed, that question has now been answered by a veterinary worker who caught the moment on video.
Vet assistant Lauren Stuckey works at the Vanderburgh Humane Society Spay & Neuter Clinic in Evansville, Indiana, and regularly shares clips of the humans and animals who pass through the doors to her TikTok page, @charcuterie2516.
One video has now gone massively viral, as it showed the sheer noise level of dozens of kittens, waking up and furiously demanding food, the morning after they underwent spaying.
As she told Newsweek: “That’s usually what our mornings sound like when the day before was made up of younger kittens, the adults aren’t nearly as loud!”
Boasting 8 million views and almost 2 million likes since being posted on October 13, it shows Stuckey walking into the cattery, where clinic manager Austyn Stock, is already standing.
As soon Stuckey she walks in, the cats begin what could easily be described as an angry protest: meowing loudly, trying to climb their cages, and one ginger cat caught making a noise that is more like a bark.
While Stuckey records, her manager turns to the wall in despair, as Stuckey takes it all in while giggling.
The shelter workers were relentlessly meowed at by the cats. One staff member turned and lay against the wall in despair.
TikTok @charcuterie2516
She wrote on the video: “When you fixed 25 kittens the day before and now this morning they’re out for blood and wet food.”
TikTok users were in stitches, with one writing: “I love the one that’s BARKING.”
“They unionized in the night,” another wrote, while one laughed at manager Stock’s “wall distress pose.”
One declared: “They’ve started a prison riot,” while one described it as the cats “planning an uprising.”
Stuckey assured commenters worried the cats were not meowing from pain, as she told Newsweek: “They get an injectable pain med after their surgery, so they are not in any pain, just excited to see people. And hungry—since they have to fast the night before surgery!”
A spokesperson for the low-cost VHS Spay & Neuter Clinic explained to Newsweek: “We are not only passionate about spay and neuter but are also advocates for pet adoption.”
They revealed the VHS made a special adoption event in October, to make room for incoming pets after Hurricane Milton, and succeeded in getting over 200 animals adopted.
TikTok users loved the clip, which has been viewed and liked millions of times. One user described it as an “uprising”.
TikTok @charcuterie2516
“The kittens you see in our video were all adopted, so we spayed and neutered them the day before they were sent out to their new homes. The little orange guy everyone said was screaming ‘help me’ is named Cilantro. He was among those adopted kittens, so he is now safe at home,” they said.
They went on: “If you’ve spent any time around small kittens, I’m sure you know how noisy and desperate they can be for our attention, and for their food.
“We’d like to think they were all screaming with excitement, knowing that they were about [to] leave with their new families! They all left the shelter on Saturday afternoon and are doing well.”
Spaying and neutering is important for myriad reasons, including slowing population growth, which can be vital when it comes to feral cat communities and the number of stray or unwanted animals in shelters, the Humane Society International (HSI) writes.
It also reduces roaming in males, and can prevent diseases and health conditions, such as reproductive cancers, according to the HSI.
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
