Tell the police instead. On second thoughts the police don’t give a damn either. If you Google “How do I report animal abuse on Facebook?” the top search result is a Facebook page with the title of the search request. Everything on the page was written 2-3 years ago telling us in no uncertain terms how little Facebook cares about animal abuse.
And everything on the page is a criticism of Facebook’s failure to police animal abuse posts on the website or even respond to requests to remove animal abuse posts, images and videos.
“My friends and I know all about this issue of facebook looking the other way. We have reported continuously, massively a certain cat haters page which hosted the graphic torturous pics and vids ever. Every complaint was dismissed, regardless the severity of the abuse portrayed on the page”….(Britta Glappa von Kannen from Holland)
If Facebook administrators do respond it is always the same: it does not violate their standards. Whatever they are. And they are low standards quite obviously if they allow people to glorify animal abuse.
Facebook says their standards bar graphic content shared for sadistic effect or to celebrate of glorify violence. This standard is not enforced or hardly enforced. Many times we have seen the perpetrators of animal abuse and violence against animals confidently celebrate their deviant behaviour on Facebook with videos and photos without so much as a flicker of dissent from Facebook’s administrators. And when people complain, the same dead response is pinged back.
As far as I am aware there is no formal way to report animal cruelty on Facebook. There is a now closed petition demanding that such a facility is added. It did not reach its target of 25,000 signatures. Is it that people in general also don’t care sufficiently about animal abuse?
Below the bubbling strata of billions of chatty cheerful posts about animals, predominantly cats and dogs, there is a dark underbelly through which runs a vein filled with poison. That poison is the attitude of the troglodytes who celebrate animal abuse. It also includes people from the mainstream middle classes such as Kristen Lindsey.
Why are Facebook’s administrators so unresponsive to animal cruelty? Have I missed something? Have they changed recently? I can’t find indications that they have.
One problem is that Facebook is so big and the number of daily posts so enormous that the site is well beyond being manageable in terms of deleting nasty posts.
Secondly, these big sites consider anything which restricts freedom of speech as having a chilling affect. Even if the freedom of speech is vile and a crime.
Thirdly, it is conceivable that businesses lobby Facebook to encourage them to allow animal abuse. Animal abuse devalues animals. This allows hunting of animals to be sustainable even in an age when it should arguably be banned worldwide. The hunting lobby is powerful.
Whatever the reason for Facebook’s apparent acceptance of animal cruelty and abuse on its website even if it is criminal behaviour, its presence is morally wrong. When the world’s largest and most influential website endorses the abuse of animals through their apathy towards it, it is a terrible reflection on the state of the human-to-animal relationship.
P.S. If you know something that I don’t about reporting animal abuse on Facebook and getting it removed, please tell us in a comment – thanks.
I wanted to add that the only stories of animal abuse that get attention are the ones about dogs. If that cat hater site where they glorify killing cats , any cat that is outside were switched to dogs FB would slam the door on them.
It seems the cases that get the most attention and action are ones where social media shaming is used.
To report animal abuse on FB is like blowing into the wind.
Law enforcement is the best, but you must approach them armed with solid evidence.
And, evidence may gain momentum if Alley Cats are contacted.