In December 2014, the band performed "Animals" in a mash-up with " This Love" for A Very Grammy Christmas concert (December 5) at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California and performed the song at the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour 2014 (December 12) in Madison Square Garden, New York City.
On November 10, 2014, Maroon 5 performed the song on the seventh season of The Voice. In October 2014, the band performed the song on Saturday Night Live (along with " Maps"), as well as The X Factor, and the television talk shows C à vous ( C to You) in France and The Graham Norton Show in the UK, respectively. On September 11, 2014, Maroon 5 performed the acoustic version of "Animals" for BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge in the United Kingdom. People are sometimes too rooted in reality and they can't differentiate.
It's like watching a horror film and notifying the people who made it to tell them you think they're disgusting. And the song is about animalistic tendencies, I'm talking about eating someone alive. It was supposed to be creepy! I play the role of the creep, it's literally a character out of a movie. It was the last video I would have expected to receive any criticism on that front. The trivialisation of these serious crimes, like stalking, should have no place in the entertainment industry." Levine reacted to the controversy in a 2018 interview with The Independent, saying "That was fucking ridiculous. Jessica Valenti of The Guardian criticized the video for attempting to make violence against women seem "edgy" stating that "there is nothing 'alternative' about showing women being stalked, hunted, raped or killed because it’s something that happens every damn day." RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) released a statement condemning the video, which wrote that "No one should ever confuse the criminal act of stalking with romance. The music video was heavily panned by critics and has been condemned for dehumanizing women and glamorizing violence. The final scenes feature Levine and Prinsloo as obsessed lovers having sex-whilst disrobed and covered in real blood (referenced to Carrie (1976). After an erotic dream, Levine wakes up in a shock and returns to stalking Prinsloo by standing outside her apartment in the rain watching in a dazed state, leading to the similar opening. Eventually, Levine is left with no luck, so he goes back to fantasizing about the girl. Though Prinsloo is amused by Levine and his interest in her, she spends the evening talking to her girlfriends instead. One evening, Levine follows the woman into a nightclub, where he tries to talk to her. Intercut with this are scenes of a shirtless Levine dripping in fake blood, singing the song inside a meat locker and using animal carcasses for punching bags (referencing to the film Rocky (1976). He also watches the woman in her sleep and takes numerous photos of Prinsloo, which he later trims and places on wires around a dark room. After she leaves, an infatuated Levine begins to stalk the woman by following her in the streets and standing outside her apartment in the pouring rain to watch her. The video starts with a woman entering a slaughterhouse, where Levine's character works. A scene from video what it presents a fantasy that features feature Levine and Prinsloo as obsessed lovers having sex whilst disrobed and covered in real blood.