An Upper Darby woman tortured and mutilated animals for likes in YouTube videos, police say

Anigar Monsee playfully toyed with the audience in a live YouTube video filmed in August in her Colwyn kitchen, answering their sexually charged questions and encouraging them to like the video in order for her to begin her performance in earnest, according to police.

When those likes came in, investigators said, the scantily-clad 27-year-old made good on her promise: She tortured a pigeon and cut its head off, with those watching the 49-minute feed praising her and making requests for future content.

Monsee, now of Upper Darby, has been charged with four counts of aggravated cruelty to animals in a case that Upper Darby Police Superintendent Tim Bernhardt described as “disturbing and barbaric.”

“Even more disturbing,” Bernhardt said Tuesday, “is that there are people out there that are entertained by this and there’s a platform out there that is allowing it.”

She was arrested late Friday, after police were contacted by representatives from PETA. The animal activist group used clues and background details in some of Monsee’s other videos, including a tour of her then-new house in Upper Darby, to determine her identity and where she lives, according to the affidavit of probable cause filed for her arrest.

Bernhardt credited PETA for that information, and urged anyone else who sees similar content to contact law enforcement if they can determined where it’s being filmed.

“It takes a cold, heartless person to harm the animals,” Bernhardt said. “But we would never have known this, this would never have come across our desk, had it not been for the people out there who saw this and notified us.”

Monsee told police in an interview that she is the person depicted in the videos, and that the account that posted them belongs to her, the affidavit said. As police played the four videos in front of her she “became visibly upset,” particularly of the one with a rabbit, and asked for them to be turned off.

In viewing her YouTube account, detectives found that Monsee uploaded three other videos in the last year in which she tortures animals including frogs, a rabbit and a chicken, the affidavit said. All of the videos purport to be about cooking the animals, but police say the way Monsee handled and abused them went well beyond preparing them for a recipe.

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The latest video, called Cooking Lucky, was uploaded Jan. 17, and depicts Monsee torturing a chicken for 10 minutes, according to the affidavit. Toward the end of the video, she steps on the bird and kills it by slitting its throat with a dull knife.

Other videos show her cutting the animals and scalding them with hot water, the affidavit said. In a video from September, she disembowels a frog while singing “Happy Death Day,” to the tune of “Happy Birthday.”

Kristin Rickman, the emergency response team director for PETA, said in an interview Tuesday that she was grateful that Upper Darby police moved so quickly to address their report.

“They’ve done a great job, and they’ve understood fully how damaging this content is, not only for the animals who suffer indescribable agony and torture, but for the minds of the people who watch,” she said. “Most people who might stumble across this would likely be traumatized by this content, but others actually seek it out.”

Rickman said the content made by Monsee was an example of “crush videos,” in which women harm small animals to fulfill the sexual fetish of viewers.

“This kind of activity is just so deplorable and so damaging that anyone engaging in it needs to be sought and held accountable,” Rickman said.

Monsee remained in custody on $20,000 bail. There was no indication that she had hired a lawyer. She is scheduled to appear before Magisterial District Judge Harry J. Karapalides for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 5.