Rising rates of animal abuse in England and Wales are being fuelled by social media, with perpetrators sharing videos and photos of dead and injured wildlife and pets, animal welfare charities have warned.
Experts also raised concerns about the proliferation of other less extreme forms of online animal cruelty, such as taunting pets for “funny” reactions on TikTok and Instagram.
The warnings come after the RSPCA published a report showing a 23% increase in attacks on animals using weapons, including air guns, slingshots, catapults or crossbows, from 300 in 2022 to 370 last year.
The charity’s wildlife officer, Geoff Edmond, said the RSPCA and the police in London and Essex noticed an increase in catapult attacks, particularly by young people, last year.
“We were seeing this increase in people targeting swans, geese, ducks and other water fowl, even squirrels, with catapults for fun,” he said. “This year we’ve had a fox attacked with a catapult down in Kent, and that was teenagers involved, and a hedgehog killed in Newbury.”
The trend was continuing, with evidence emerging of attacks being coordinated and shared online, said Edmond. “A lot of wildlife crime has changed because [perpetrators] can utilise social media to show what to do. People use social media to celebrate when they go out and set dogs on badgers. You see these videos on TikTok and other social media networks.”
The trend has continued despite social media firms facing the threat of substantial fines if they fail to remove animal cruelty content from their platforms under the Online Safety Act 2023.
Earlier this year, a Sky News investigation revealed that children – some of primary school age – are filming themselves using catapults to kill and torture animals in a UK-wide network on WhatsApp.
It found hundreds of members of catapult groups on WhatsApp, where photos and videos of animals killed or injured, often placed alongside the weapons used, are shared. In a video shared on one group, a deer with a severe head injury lies twitching on the ground, having been shot with a catapult by a child.
Edmond said he hoped Operation Lakeshot, a police-led partnership initiative the charity has helped to develop with the Essex and Metropolitan forces, would improve efforts to tackle such wildlife crimes. “One thing that struck me with WhatsApp images that Sky uncovered was you can tell [by the voice notes posted with videos and images in the chat] they’re having fun,” Edmond added.
The number of young perpetrators was “a stark reminder of the dire consequences of failing to instil empathy towards animals in children,” said Elisa Allen, the vice-president of programmes at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta). Other charities have raised concerns about animal cruelty posted online for entertainment.
Madison Rogers, the head of advocacy, campaigns and government relations for Cats Protection, said some clips on Instagram and TikTok got millions of views and likes. “There’s one where people tap the cat until they get a reaction out of it. People comment how funny it is, but it’s in distress. Sometimes the cats turn around and lash out. It is worrying that people don’t recognise that as a form of cruelty and then try and replicate it with their own cats.”
The RSPCA’s latest annual Kindness Index, a national survey of attitudes towards animal welfare, found 43% of 16- to 17-year-olds had witnessed cruelty online in the past year, almost double the proportion of the adult population (22%), with Instagram, TikTok and X being the main platforms on which they saw it.
Gemma Hope, the RSPCA’s assistant director for policy, advocacy and evidence, said the survey had also highlighted two worrying trends: a growing lack of recognition of animal sentience and a decline in affection for animals among teenagers.
“Over the three years we’ve been doing the survey, the understanding about animal sentience has decreased,” she said. “If people don’t think animals can feel pain and have feelings, then they don’t necessarily think if they do something horrible, like shoot a crossbow at them, that it has an impact.”
