A Moroccan YouTuber has been sentenced to eight months in prison after filming himself skinning, cooking, and eating a dead stray dog in a viral video.
Ayoub Ben Nesnes, a 26-year-old content creator known online as Bn Nsns, was sentenced by the Temara Court of First Instance on July 6.
The court also fined him 20,000 Moroccan dirhams, around $2,000 USD, over the video, which was published during Eid al-Adha and sparked widespread outrage across Morocco.
The 41-minute upload reportedly showed Ben Nesnes taking a dog that had been killed in a road accident before skinning it, roasting the meat, and eating it.
Ben Nesnes had presented the animal as an alternative Eid sacrifice and claimed the stunt was intended to protest the rising cost of livestock, arguing that he could not afford a sheep.
Bn Nsns fined $2,000 and sentenced to prison over dog-eating video
After facing backlash, the YouTuber denied killing the dog himself and insisted he had found it dead beside the road.
“The dog that appeared in the video – I didn’t kill it. I found it dead on the side of the road after it was hit in a traffic accident,” he said. “I didn’t kill it, so stop saying that I did. Everything is documented, and there’s proof.”
Police later arrested Ben Nesnes in the northern Moroccan city of Martil before transferring him to Arjat 1 prison.
He was prosecuted on charges including insulting Islam, killing and mutilating an animal without justification, making criminal threats, inciting violence, and publishing online content deemed harmful to public order and morals.
Several animal welfare and civil society organizations joined the case. One group, the National Organization for Electronic Protection, reportedly sought a five-year prison sentence and a fine of 500,000 dirhams, around $50,000.
However, the court dismissed all civil claims and limited its ruling to the eight-month sentence and 20,000-dirham fine.
This isn’t the first time a dog being eaten has sparked controversy this year. Back in June, an influencer dog with 1.5M followers was reportedly stolen and eaten after being sold to a restaurant in China.
