Animal welfare

Updated: November 6, 2024

What is animal abuse?

As outlined in our Community Guidelines, we do not allow animal abuse, cruelty, neglect or other forms of animal exploitation, and remove content in which distress or harm is caused to animals.

Animal abuse involves inflicting physical or psychological injury or harm to an animal. This includes the use of force against animals that can cause physical injuries, denying an animal basic food, water, sanitary or medical needs, harming or causing distress to an animal for entertainment, and subjecting animals to cruel or inhumane practices.

How to identify animal abuse

Here are some indicators of animal abuse that you should be aware of (non-exhaustive):

Being aggressive or violent towards an animal

Shouting and subjecting an animal to constant auditory distress

Inappropriate feeding of animals

Animals are trained or forced to attack each other

Filthy sanitary conditions affecting the animals' health and well-being

Absence of proper medical care when there's evidence of injury

Learn more about identifying animal abuse from our Safety Partners:

How to support animal welfare

TikTok is committed to maintaining a supportive environment, including providing a space for pet owners and animal lovers to share and enjoy animal-related content. If you spot an instance of animal abuse on TikTok’s platform, we encourage you to report it by long-pressing on the content, clicking "Report" and selecting "Violence, abuse and criminal exploitation", then "animal abuse".

The search tool below may help connect you to local organisations in your region to learn more about how to prevent animal abuse.

Learn more

How can I make a difference in celebrating and caring for animals?
  • If you are a pet owner, be responsible and kind. Make arrangements for your pet’s care before leaving them alone. Also, go beyond the basic needs of your pets by providing them with positive experiences to enhance their well-being.
  • Teach children to respect animals. Set a good example by treating animals with love and consideration, sharing how to interact with them properly, and encouraging them to become animal welfare advocates when they grow up.
  • Consider helping people who are overwhelmed with caring for their animals. Animal neglect can happen for various reasons. For example, an owner may not have the psychological or monetary resources to provide an animal with the appropriate care. Your assistance can make a difference in helping the pet receive the care it needs, and by helping the pet, you may also be helping another human.
  • Donate financially or volunteer your time to humane animal shelters and organisations to support their vital work.
How can I safely share experiences with animal welfare on TikTok?
  • Create and share your animal content responsibly. Spreading joy should not come at the expense of these animals. For example, provoking or setting up animals to film their distressed reactions can be harmful to them. Allow these animals to be in their natural state.
  • Consider sharing non-graphic educational content that raises awareness about animal abuse and welfare in an appropriate manner. Doing so raises awareness of the importance of intervening when animals are neglected or tormented.

Disclaimer

This guide serves to provide information for user education. We do not profit from providing such information, nor is the information directly produced as a result of cooperation or association with the listed external organisations.