NikkiPhillipi/YouTube
- YouTube couple Nikki and Dan Phillipi recently got backlash for euthanizing their dog.
- Now, a 2018 video of the two deciding not to adopt a child from Thailand has resurfaced online.
- They said they canceled the adoption, in part, because they were told the child couldn't appear in videos for a year.
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YouTubers Nikki and Dan Phillipi have come under fire on social media again over a May 2018 video that's being recirculated after the creators said they euthanized their dog following an act of aggression towards their young son.
In the video, which is still up on Nikki's channel, the couple discussed ceasing an adoption from Thailand after they were told that the process would prohibit them from sharing content about the child on social media for a year.
"After you pick up your child, they are your child, but you are not allowed to talk about them or share any images, photos, videos, anything about them online for a year," Nikki, a lifestyle and parenting influencer with over 1.27 million subscribers on YouTube, said of the country's social media policy for adoptions.
In the video entitled "We're not adopting from Thailand anymore," Nikki's husband, Dan, said: "I mean, Nikki's got a YouTube channel, and we share a whole lot." They also said that the adoption would take a year to finalize. "The kid is gonna be living here in our house for a year and that whole time, it's not our kid. So, not okay with that either," Dan added.
Holt International, the adoption agency the Phillippis said they had worked with, told Insider in an email that the social media policy is part of Thai adoption law, which restricts the release of an "adopted child's information, photos, videos and films to mass media or Internet before finalization by Thai Law."
The couple said they ultimately decided not to go through with the adoption, as they didn't want to cause "harm or repercussions to other people and an entire organization for that matter" if they ended up breaking the social media rule.
The video resurfaced after the couple was condemned online for putting down their dog
Some Twitter users said the 2018 footage made it seem that the Phillippis were planning to use their child for social media content.
The resurfaced video has since been shared widely across Reddit and Twitter, in the wake of the couple's controversial early May announcement that they put down their dog, Bowser, after he bit their toddler. The couple had previously shared content about their dog with followers.
-Def Noodles (@defnoodles) May 9, 2021
"Bowser had an aggressive side that reared its ugly head a few times over the years... and recently he bit Logan," Nikki wrote in the caption of the since-deleted post. "After a lot of counsel, we decided it was time for Bowser to pass peacefully on."
Though an animal expert told Insider that an end of life can sometimes be an option in cases of aggression, many commenters said the dog should have been rehomed instead. The Phillippis said in a YouTube video about the decision that they had discussed options, including rehoming, with experts. "Some dogs can't live with kids, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to live," one person said in the comments section of Nikki's now-private Instagram post.
Insider did not immediately hear back to its request for comment from Phillipi.