59.97% Assert Animal Abuse Needs To Be Censored on Social Media

There is an epidemic of videos promoting, encouraging, and profiting from animal abuse, as animal cruelty on social media scrambles to earn clicks and advertising dollars.

It is inhumane enough to be cruel to animals, but to show them on social media is heinous. This type of behavior can be hazardous, as it may normalize treating living beings disrespectfully or even physically abusing them—especially among impressionable viewers, including the younger audience.

Moreover, they increase the risk of “copycat” behavior by people seeking publicity and attention, even if it’s negative.

People who want to show off to their audience may embark on bizarre quests for reactions and popularity. This may result in outright abuse videos periodically popping up on your feed. In this case, the outdated and overrated phrase “any publicity is good publicity” would apply since there is potential for individuals to be compelled merely by their desire to be noticed by society.

With abusive videos and abusers running a rampage on public platforms, Real Research conducted a survey seeking public opinion on the animal cruelty seen on social media.

Key Takeaways:

• 60% of respondents have witnessed animal abuse in person
• 63.65% say domesticated pets are the most abused
• 20.89% just ignore cruelty videos rather than taking action against them

60% Witnessed Animal Abuse, and the Rest One-tenth Aren’t Aware

Participants were asked about personal experiences with animal abuse at the beginning of the survey. 60.90% said they had witnessed it, while 28.73% said they had only heard about it. Compared to 10.37% of respondents who are uncertain of this subject.

65.99% of respondents have come across animal abuse on social media when asked about the trend of animal abuse videos appearing on the internet lately. 24.77% have only heard of such videos, and around 10% do not have any prior experience with such.

WhatsApp is the primary vehicle for sharing animal cruelty videos, as per 18.67% of respondents. Other popular social media platforms where such videos are shared include YouTube, Facebook, and Snapchat, as per 17.89%, 16.9%, and 12.81% of respondents, respectively. However, the popular video-sharing platform, Tiktok, has a comparatively lower rate of cruelty videos shared, with less than 8% of respondents naming it.

Read Also: Animal Welfare Awareness Increases Globally

Humanity Lost? Watching Cruelty Videos Leaves More Than 15% Indifferent

Furthermore, respondents were asked how they felt when witnessing animal cruelty on social media. A shocking majority of respondents (15.47%) said they felt indifferent toward them. Another 14.86% stated they felt anxious, and 13.29% felt angry after watching animal cruelty on social media. Surprisingly, only 11.86% felt sad after coming across footage of animal cruelty on social media.

More than one-fifth (20.89%) of the public, when asked what action they would take upon seeing an animal cruelty video on social media, responded that they would rather ignore and not watch it than take action against it. Other responses received include respondents watching it and not reacting (15.05%), sharing it to raise awareness (14.54%), etc.

Read Also: 41% Blame Climate Change for Animal Extinction in Australia

60% Think It’s Paramount to Censor Social Media Animal Cruelty Videos

There needs to be a strict law against animal cruelty on social media and broadcasts. When laws are violated, social media platforms must take decisive action against the perpetrators or ensure that these laws are not broken. In this regard, the survey asked respondents whether they believe strict laws should be established against animal cruelty-related contents on social media. 59.97% of respondents deemed that the enforcement of such laws was crucial.

It is impossible to distinguish whether a passive, aggressive, or afraid animal has been abused solely based on its behavior, even when it seems like the animal is a victim of violence. Hence, to know the public’s take on this, respondents were asked how they would distinguish an animal under abuse from an animal that is not. For this, 19.15% acknowledged a dirty and unkempt environment as a symptom of animal abuse. Lack of shelter might help understand an animal under abuse, as per 14.50% of people.

Finally, Real Research asked about the most effective way to stop animal cruelty, for which the majority (31.95%) agreed upon sharing and publishing steps taken to fight against animal cruelty. 23.21% stated that teaching the next generation of pet parents might help.