​SMACC’s latest research shows the truth behind fake rescue content: animals are being harmed and viewers are being scammed.
Animals face fear, injury and death, in the interest of social media content
Fake rescue content shows animals who have intentionally been harmed or placed in dangerous situations, so that the content creator can appear to rescue the animal. Their goal is to generate revenue from "likes" and "shares".
Sadly, animal lovers are being scammed out of much more than their likes
Many fake rescue creators ask viewers for donations under the guise of helping animals, usually by Paypal links. Every dollar given to these creators fuels more animal suffering.
This content shows humans “rescuing” sick and injured animals, animals trapped and stuck under heavy objects and some even on the verge of drowning. In these staged scenarios, all set up by the content creator, animals are put in danger and situations of distress. Very little is known about what happens to the animals before, or after these video clips.
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Kittens, puppies and young monkeys are the main victims. Young and vulnerable, they are prone to abuse.
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In SMACC’s latest research, over a third of the content showed animals apparently “abandoned”, often by the side of the road, in rubbish dumps and bins. SMACC is particularly concerned about the potential staging of these situations, as there are suspicions that some animals may have been deliberately harmed or manipulated for the sake of content
What We Found
01
More than 1000 links showing fake rescue content were collected over six weeks from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter/X.
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The links located by SMACC had been watched 572,013,959 times.
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Cats were the most numerous animal featured (42%), followed by primates, dogs, snakes and turtle species.
02
Almost 52% of links were found on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok each feature around a quarter of the content.
04
The most common Fake Rescue themes identified were:
“Found to be abandoned” (30.6%);“Rescued from being trapped/stuck” 28.1% and “Rescued from being attacked by animal/s” 15.7%
06
21% of fake rescue creators asked viewers for donations under the disguise of helping animals, usually by Paypal links.
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How We Can End Fake Rescue Content?
A.R.C - Authenticity, Reality Check and Content Creation.
SMACC and our members are actively pushing social media companies to remove such content from appearing on their platforms, to protect animals.
But we need your help to #SpotTheScam! As a social media user, you have the power to identify fake rescue content and report it to the platforms for removal.
Remember A.R.C when you come across animal rescue content:
Authenticity, Reality Check, Content Creation. ​
Help us #StopTheScam!
