Animals on social media: The red flags everyone should know

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Animals on social media: The red flags everyone should know

They’re the viral videos and images that we’ve all seen; animals performing quirky tricks, heartwarming rescues, interspecies friendships and wild animal interactions, to name a few. Animal-related content on social media continues to be popular - and it’s a sign of just how much we love animals and how important they are to our lives. But how many of us have stopped to question what is really going on behind the scenes?

RSPCA Australia
Tuesday, 1 July 2025

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They’re the viral videos and images that we’ve all seen; animals performing quirky tricks, heartwarming rescues, interspecies friendships and wild animal interactions, to name a few.

Animal-related content on social media continues to be popular - and it’s a sign of just how much we love animals and how important they are to our lives.

But how many of us have stopped to question what is really going on behind the scenes? Often the reality is far from cute; in some cases it can be inappropriate or dangerous, and at worst can be harmful and exploitative.

Here’s what you need to know about animal-related content on social media, and what to do when you come across images or videos that you think may be putting an animal’s welfare at risk.

The good, the bad, and the ugly side of animals on social media.

A lot of animal-related content is harmless and a good example of the sort of content that should be being shared. This includes things like videos of well-cared-for companion animals displaying species appropriate behaviours (like a dog chasing a ball or a cat playing with a cat toy), or footage of a wild animal in their natural habitat, taken from a distance without human intervention.

On the other end of the spectrum, some content is blatantly cruel, such as videos showing physical abuse towards animals. Animal cruelty content has found disturbing popularity on social media, with some content creators even making money out of hurting animals for views.

But a lot of problematic content is less obvious – at least at first glance. Fake rescue videos are good examples of masked cruelty. On the surface these videos may look like a heroic act and happy ending, but in reality, the animal has been deliberately put in a dangerous situation (one that they would rarely find themselves in naturally) so that the content creator can ‘rescue’ them for views. There are some general indicators that will expose a fake rescue video, these include: no genuine animal welfare organisation association, the creator’s page has multiple ‘rescue’ videos, no follow up on what happens to the animal (they simply disappear from the page), unprofessional rescue or veterinary practices, and the human ‘rescuer’ is always the same individual.

A lot of trends involving companion animals (pets) online can be more harmful than they look at first glance. This includes things like frightening cats with aluminium foil, and dogs performing unusual tricks such as walking on their hind legs or ‘dancing’, which are unnatural behaviours and may be taught using harmful training methods.

Forcing animals into contrived situations such as those depicted in these videos doesn’t recognise the animal's need for behavioural freedom, pose risks to physical health and are likely to be detrimental to their short term and long-term welfare.

What should we be looking for instead?

The good news is that animals are cute, quirky and uniquely special without being used in a way that’s unsafe or dangerous.

When you’re scrolling social media, the sort of animal-related content you want to be engaging with and sharing is content where:

The animals are fit and healthy
They’re portrayed in a way that supports responsible ownership (e.g., cats being properly contained to their owners’ property)
They’re engaging in behaviour that comes naturally to them (even if that behaviour is unusual or quirky-looking to us humans)
They have a choice about whether to engage in that behaviour (i.e., they’re not being put in an unnatural or dangerous situation by humans)
The humans behind the account appear to have a genuine passion for animals and animal welfare and conduct themselves accordingly.

What to do if you come across harmful animal content.

If you see a video showing animals and you have concerns for their welfare, first and foremost do not share or comment on the video as tempting as it is to voice your disapproval at the source, as this increases engagement and may encourage the producers to make more content and in turn cause more harm to animals. 

Instead report it to the platform and keep reporting if the content is not removed. It’s important to report content systematically to the platform directly as while social media platforms generally publish guidelines for permitted content, the mechanisms currently used to detect and remove harmful content are not sufficiently thorough. The vast scale of content and the process it takes to remove violations means that the platforms largely depend on consumers reporting such content, and the more a video or creator is reported the more likely the content will be removed. 47% of reports get removed eventually so it’s important to keep reporting!

In addition, you can also report animal cruelty content directly to the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACC), which has been formed to understand, address and end the production and distribution of animal cruelty content available on social media platforms, and has a dedicated reporting page. If it’s in Australia and involves a potential breach of state or territory animal cruelty laws (and you know what state/territory it’s in), you can also report to the relevant authorities (which in some cases is the RSPCA inspectorate).

This piece was originally published in Australian Community Media newspapers.

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Animals on social media: The red flags everyone should know

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