Police use cat filter during news conference on double murder

By Tania Snuggs, news reporter

Canadian police have apologised after a cat filter was used during a Facebook live-streaming of a news conference about a double murder, which gave the presiding officer whiskers and ears.

Sergeant Janelle Shoihet, from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police of British Columbia, blamed “technical difficulties” for the error.

She was giving a briefing about the murders of an American woman and her Australian boyfriend, who were found dead on a remote highway earlier this week.

Tweeting about the incident she said: “Yes we are aware and addressing it as it’s an automatic setting. Thank you, we will rectify and issue a video shortly”.

But some people expressed their bewilderment at what happened, with Douglas Theedom asking why the force needed a cat-filter “as an automatic setting?”.

The press conference was in connection with the deaths of Chynna Noelle Deese, 24, and Lucas Robertson Fowler, 23 – and police appealed for any information.

It is not the first time a mistake like this has happened during a live-streaming event.

In June, a Pakistani politician’s press conference descended into farce when a cat filter was accidentally used, giving him feline features.

Shaukat Yousafzai was updating journalists on Facebook and was later quoted saying that the “mistake” should not be taken “so seriously”.