French influencer admits faking dog-kidnapping prank for ‘entertainment’

French influencer Cyril Schreiner has admitted he manufactured his pet pug Albert's kidnapping because he was bored. Photo / Cyril Schreiner

A French influencer has been forced to apologise after he faked his dog’s kidnapping in an online stunt he hoped would cure his boredom with content creation.

In what he has now described as a “very bad joke”, Cyril Schreiner shared surveillance video in which his pet pug, Albert, was seemingly kidnapped from his back garden, the Daily Mail reported.

On Monday, the 27-year-old admitted the abduction had been a mere hoax, delivering a grovelling Snapchat apology series where he said “there are things you shouldn’t joke about”.

Calling himself an “a**hole”, Schreiner said he needed to reveal the truth about the incident after he faked the dog’s safe return last week.

“I acted stupidly, and I apologise publicly. Whether you accept my apology or not, I never meant to disrespect people who have actually lost pets. I can’t imagine how horrible that must be.”

Rather than his actual pet, the influencer said he had used a sack of potatoes in the clip to mimic the dog, according to US Magazine.

“I wanted to create entertainment. And that’s what I’ve been doing for you for one week, but I did it really in the worst way.”

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Schreiner had built a career making content featuring his pets, gaining a whopping 8.5 million followers on TikTok.

He blamed the pressure to make “entertaining” videos for the questionable caper, pointing to his declining satisfaction with content creation.

“In recent years, what I was doing on social media pleased me less and less. I was enjoying it less. I was making videos almost automatically”, he said.

He also alluded to struggles in his personal life but said he would not elaborate further online.

According to PEOPLE, the star went on to claim the videos had ultimately had the opposite effect than intended, causing him to lose money and potential partnerships.

“Creating all of this cost me a lot of money and brought in almost nothing. Social media doesn’t pay like it used to.”

Schreiner claimed he will be donating the revenue generated from the prank videos to animal welfare charities.