Growing trend on fake animal rescues put animals at grave risk: Report

The detailed report further aims to raise awareness among the public and animal lovers, to ensure they are not exacerbating the problem, by falling for fake rescue content, generating views in the millions for fake rescue content creators.“Fake animal rescues on social media put animals in extremely risky situations to film their “rescue.” They also profit off compassionate people, while undermining the credibility of real rescue work. This is a new form of animal abuse that traumatises, hurts, and can be fatal to animals”, said Bharati Ramachandran, CEO, Federation of Indian Animals Protection Organisations (FIAPO).SMACC found that even the endangered species were being used by content creators. To aid social media platforms and the public, SMACC identified key indicators that can be used to determine what is real and fake.“Some rescue content apparently looks realistic and shows animals in situations of immense danger, abandoned on the streets, buried alive or trapped in objects, being attacked by predators or in need of medical attention. Very little is known about what happens to the animals after these video clips and how they are treated by the content creator or if they are kept in suitable environments”, the report stated.



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