Los Angeles police officers are investigating a video in which a popular YouTuber allegedly hits her dog multiple times.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been handed over to our animal cruelty task force,鈥� the department鈥檚 public information officer Jeff Lee told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview. 鈥淭hey are looking into the incident to determine whether or not the abuse did occur.鈥�

In the unedited video, which has since been taken down, Brooke Houts appears to repeatedly yell, hit and spit on her Doberman Sphinx, who has appeared in several other of her videos.

Snippets of the video have been widely circulated online, with dozens of people accusing the popular YouTuber of blatant animal abuse.

CTVNews.ca has reached out to YouTube鈥檚 parent company Google, to determine whether the site or Houts took the video down and whether she will be reprimanded. The company had not responded as of when this article was published.

The site prohibits videos that include or incite abuse toward animals.

CTVNews.ca has also reached out to Houts for comment. The YouTube star, who boasts nearly 334,000 subscribers on that platform, has taken to addressing the viral video clip.

She apologized to 鈥渁nyone who has been affected negatively by the footage,鈥� claiming that "things in my outside life have been less than exceptional.鈥�

However, several hours later, she appeared to defend some of her behaviour by saying her 34-kilogram dog was heavy so 鈥渨hen he is jumping up in my face with his mouth open, I, as a dog parent, have to show him that this behavior is unacceptable.鈥�

Houts claimed she is not an animal abuser, adding: 鈥淚 want to make it known that regardless of what my dog does, I should not have acted that way towards him.鈥�

She鈥檚 not the only online personality who鈥檚 been in hot water in regards to their behaviour with their pets lately.

Last month, Canadian Twitch streamer Natalia 鈥淎linity鈥� Mogollon for appearing to toss her cat over her shoulder during a live stream. She ultimately apologized and the Saskatoon SPCA .