‘VIEWS THAT ABUSE’: New report says cruel, fake animal rescue videos still prevalent on YouTube
You can hear the terrified cries of the animals as they fear for their lives and try to break free from being trapped in the grips of the predators. The cruelty is set-up and inflicted for entertainment.
WORLD ANIMAL PROTECTION: A new investigation from the global charity World Animal Protection further exposes the shocking scale of a cruel and worrying craze on YouTube – the rise of videos depicting fake animal rescues involving wildlife. In these videos, an animal, such as a dog or chicken is filmed to be the prey for a large predator, such as a snake or crocodile. You can hear the terrified cries of the animals as they fear for their lives and try to break free from being trapped in the grips of the predators… The cruelty is set-up and inflicted for entertainment…
This research follows on from World Animal Protection’s pioneering work with Instagram, that alerted them to the explosive trend of posting wildlife selfies on the site. Due to the charity’s work raising awareness of the issue and constructive discussions with Instagram , the platform acted to resolve the situation. Specifically, the charity documented through their report ‘A close up on cruelty’, that this harmful selfie trend was driving the suffering and exploitation of some of the world’s most iconic animals across the globe, such as sloths and monkeys…
In their report Views That Abuse, researchers from World Animal Protection have uncovered horrific findings… Concerningly, the investigation found that 47 new fake animal rescue videos have been posted since the end of March 2021, after YouTube publicly pledged to crack down on animal cruelty content. Due to the popularity and viewing numbers, the content producers will also be making money from advertising, meaning that they are profiting directly from people who watch animals suffer…
World Animal Protection has written to YouTube, calling for them to live up to their promise and act on this issue urgently. Although so far, cries have fallen on deaf ears with YouTube relying on the general public to report cruelty. Regardless, the research showed that many of these videos have been up on the site for months, showing that the current system in place doesn’t work.
Ben Williamson, Programs Director for World Animal Protection US says, “There is no doubt that the animals in these videos will have suffered from injuries and severe psychological trauma, just for cheap thrills for viewers at home. We also worry that these videos are becoming more popular, with more variety of species, and the severity of suffering getting worse”…
World Animal Protection is calling on YouTube to live up to its promise and immediately remove the abusive content that clearly violates its stated community standards. Longer term, YouTube should publicly share their plans to proactively prevent cruel content going up in the first place rather than relying on the public to report it. Funds, resources and time need to be channelled to end this cruelty at once. SOURCE…
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