Inside Edition just featured our work exposing fake animal rescue videos, showing viewers across the country the truth behind this cruel, deceptive social media content.
LFT Founder and President Nina Jackel explains how people deliberately put animals in danger, then pretend to save them on camera for views and profit.
The report explains the hidden cruelty behind some of the most heartbreaking content on the internet and highlights our call to social media companies to take action. It also offers a sneak peek of Cruelty for Clicks, our upcoming documentary about the online animal abuse running rampant online, directed by Kirk Murray.
For years, we’ve pressed social media companies for meaningful change. Our 2020 YouTube investigation documented fake rescues with more than 40 million views. Tens of thousands of supporters signed our petition urging the platform to end the abuse.
YouTube soon announced plans to ban staged rescues, but the videos kept appearing online. A 2024 Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition report we helped compile documented more than 1,000 links to apparent staged rescues across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Some of these posts even asked viewers to send money to the supposed rescue, exploiting their concern for the animals.
Our work extends beyond fake rescues, and we’ve seen progress. This April, we announced that Meta had removed hundreds of abusive posts we’d reported and begun working with us to address cruelty on Facebook and Instagram.
We hope this coverage helps caring people recognize true rescues from animal abuse.
Thank you for standing with us in the fight to end the suffering.
