Animal welfare
At TikTok, we are building a global community where people can create, discover the world around them, and connect with others across the globe. We are committed to maintaining a supportive environment for our growing community. This includes providing a space for pet owners and animal lovers to share and enjoy animal-related content.
We do not allow any content that promotes, glorifies, or normalises violence against animals or the suffering of animals. To help ensure that TikTok remains a safe and enjoyable place for everyone, we use a combination of technologies and moderation teams to identify, review, and take action against content or accounts that contain or promote animal abuse or cruelty. We remain committed to constantly improving our efforts to prevent and remove any animal-related content that violates our policies.
What is animal abuse?
Animal abuse involves inflicting physical or psychological injury or harm to an animal. This includes using 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?
A starting position is to avoid acting or behaving in ways that cause distress or harm to animals. Here are some indicators of animal abuse that you should be aware of (non-exhaustive):
- Depiction of aggression and/or violence towards an animal, such as kicking or beating
- Shouting and subjecting an animal to constant auditory distress
- Inappropriate feeding of animals with food that could be harmful or poisonous to them
- Staged or forced animal fighting, in which animals are trained or forced to attack each other in violent confrontations at the risk of grave injury or death
- Absence of proper sanitary conditions that impact the animals’ health and well-being
- Absence of proper medical care when there’s evidence of injury (e.g. Limping, blood, or a broken tail)
You can make a difference too
There are many ways for us to make a difference to celebrate and care for animals. Here are some ways to consider, provided that it is feasible and appropriate to do so:
- 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 with them how to properly interact with animals, and encouraging them to become animal welfare advocates when they grow up.
- 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.
- Consider if you can help people who are overwhelmed with caring for their animal. 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 organizations to support their vital work.
Useful resources
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 the relevant reason or through our online online form. Here are a few examples of organizations that you can reach out to to learn more about animal abuse.
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 organizations.