Speaking Out for Animals this ‘Report It’ Week
As the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition’s ‘Report It’ Week begins, Born Free highlights the ways members of the public can speak out about animal abuse and exploitation.
© J McArthur
Sadly, the abuse and exploitation of animals is widespread, and millions suffer as a result. But you can help end their suffering by reporting what you see. Whether it’s images of animals that you see posted online, or your own eyewitness experiences, please speak out – it really does make a difference.
Find out more about what you can do and how to report it below.
Reporting Animal Cruelty on Social Media Platforms
There is a huge amount of animal cruelty and exploitation posted online, particularly on social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube. Born Free is a member of the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACC) which works to address the issue of images and videos depicting animal cruelty being circulated on social media.
SMACC’S ‘Report It’ week (May 24th-31st) is spotlighting the importance of reporting instances of online animal cruelty, and sending a clear message to social media platforms that animal cruelty is unacceptable and must be addressed. You can help by reporting the social media platforms displaying such images to SMACC via their online report form.
SUBMIT A REPORT ABOUT ONLINE ANIMAL CRUELTY
SMACC also provides a wealth of guidance and useful tools to help you to report what you’ve seen directly to the social media platforms involved, to encourage the platforms to take action against the posting of animal cruelty content.
Reporting Eyewitness Concerns for Captive Wild Animals
© Aaron Gekoski / Born Free
If you witness the suffering and exploitation of wild animals in captivity firsthand, whether in your home country or when travelling abroad, please report it to Born Free via our Raise the Red Flag platform.
We receive thousands of Red Flag reports about wild animals in captivity around the world, which provide vital evidence to support our advocacy efforts to secure policy change and effective legislation in order to end exploitation and improve animal welfare.
In addition to submitting your reports, we ideally need you to take further steps to speak out for the individual animals you may have encountered. All too often, captive facilities, ‘attractions’, travel companies, and country authorities state that ‘they never receive any complaints’, so it is important that they hear directly from their customers and the wider public. They have the power to influence positive change for the animals concerned and to take action to improve practices.
Please visit our Speak Out hub which links to our take action guidance pages, providing information on who to contact and useful links to help find their contact details.
NB If your eyewitness concerns don’t involve captive wild animals and you want to report domestic animal suffering, please report it to the RSPCA in the UK or the equivalent organisation in the country concerned, if one exists (visit World Animal Net).
Raise The Red Flag
If you see an animal suffering in captivity, please report it through our Raise the Red Flag platform.