YouTube Remove Aus Band's Video Over 'Fish Murder'

A local indie band are claiming that YouTube has banned their latest video over its depiction of a dead fish.

New South Wales Central Coast outfit Little Earthquake recently unveiled the clip for single Brightside, which tells the story of singer Matt Hyland and his best mate, a fish, which dies at the beginning of the vid. Hyland then hallucinates taking the fish (in human form and played by brother/bandmate Justin Hyland) out for a night on the town.

The clip shows Matt tipping alcohol on the fish and burying it at the end, but the band have defended their treatment of the deceased animal in the wake of the video's removal. Little Earthquake discovered the removal of the clip earlier today, with the reasoning that it breached YouTube's terms of service.

“At no time did we harm a fish. For the filming we used an already deceased fish we acquired from a local aquarium,” Matt said.

“In fact the clip is a celebration of the love between man and fish and a touching tribute to their relationship. We didn't make an ACTUAL fish skol vodka and we treated the corpse with respect at all times.”

Justin said the duo didn't set out to offend anyone with the clip.

“John Butler had zombies in his clip earlier this year so depicting dead things in a clip didn't seem to matter there. But I guess we used an ACTUAL fish. We apologise to all those in the aquaculture community whom we have offended, but that certainly wasn't the intention.”

An automated email from YouTube to the band suggested that they might receive a response to the decision sometime down the track. It comes just days after reports that YouTube would soon be banning videos from indie bands if their labels hadn't signed new agreements with the social media giant.

The video is still viewable on Vimeo, watch it for yourselves below:

It remains to be seen though whether YouTube will crack down on all fish cruelty on their website...