Gwen Stefani slammed for ‘disturbing’ treatment of ‘terrified’ tiny kitten on The Voice

Fans are fuming at Gwen Stefani for her treatment of a ‘terrified’ kitten during The Voice’s premiere.

The Season 26 premiere of The Voice saw tons of new talent take the stage during the blind auditions but fans are focusing on one awkward moment between couch Gwen Stefani and a kitten.

Viewers of the hit NBC show are slamming the No Doubt singer – who also made another bold move during the episode – for her “disturbing” treatment of a “terrified” tiny kitten that appeared during one contestant, Sydney Sterlace’s audition.

Sydney quickly impressed coach Michael Bublé, then Stefani, Snoop Dogg, and Reba McEntire with her rendition of Olivia Rodrigo’s song Drivers Licence.

After all the coaches praised Sydney for her voice, Gwen walked away from her seat and said: “You know Sydney… I had this little thing happen to me.

“This little creature came up to my porch and was like barely alive and was like ‘I love you, you’re my new cat’ but I don’t have a name!”

“Then I thought maybe I can name it Sydney. This cat’s name is Sydney!”

Snoop knew she was trying to win over the 15-year-old and said: “Illegal use of an animal.”

When it came time for her to chose a coach, Sydney chose Stefani and the alternative singer got up excitedly with her kitten to hug the teen.

However, fans couldn’t help but slam Stefani for her treatment of the tiny kitten.

One wrote on Reddit: “Did anyone else find it a little disturbing the way she handled that tiny kitten and how she was screaming in its ear? But that Sidney has a beautiful voice.”

Another said: “I actually noticed this too, I’m not a cat owner or anything but idk if you’re supposed to hold kittens the way she was lol.”

“Very odd! I’m assuming from the way she handled it, it actually was not her kitten,” a third added.

A fourth commented: “It was disturbing how this poor terrified “very young” animal was waved and yanked around in the air like a stuffed toy.”

However another said: “I’m sure the kitten is fine.”

In May, Stefani shared a cute video of her family’s new additions at her Oklahoma mansion.

Stefani and her husband Blake Shelton welcomed several adorable kittens into their home as their precious calico cat had a litter of six kittens back in April.

Stefani also angered other viewers for blocking McEntire from a contestant named Jake in the first few minutes of the premiere, which meant she was prevented from adding Jake to her team.

Fans on X, formerly Twitter, shared their opinions about the blocking.

One fan questioned: “Who thought of the idea of a block button? as another wrote: “Haven’t watched the voice in years and this block button??? Oh that’s messy.”

Other fans simply couldn’t believe Stefani had blocked McEntire so quickly, with one saying: “gwen blocking reba asap” as another added: “@reba knew @gwenstefani blocked her! #TheVoice.”

Other viewers said: “Gwen already blocking,” “I don’t know if I’d have the stones to block Reba. I’m just sayin” and “Reba just got blocked.”

Yet another laughed: “Gwen’s not playin haha.”

When McEntire explained to the crowd and Jake what Stefani did, the alternative singer got up and her only response was doing push ups on McEntire’s Blocked name.

In the end, Jake didn’t even pick Stefani, so her blocking of McEntire proved useless. He picked Team Snoop and fans praised him for it.