Wild animals are exploited and abused for visitor selfies fuelled by Instagram and other social media. You can commit to help filter cruelty out of selfies
Many people envy friends who post selfies of themselves hugging or holding wild animals, which sadly encourages more people to take their own photos. This continues the ongoing suffering and cruelty for wildlife.
Right now, as the tourism industry suffers a downturn due to the coronavirus pandemic, the wildlife selfie madness has come to a halt and many animals are at risk of going hungry. And thousands more risk being forgotten about and left to suffer in cruel captivity.
But, with ongoing help from supporters like you, we’re working to ensure animals in tourism venues remain fed and cared for during this current crisis.
Amongst the 34 billion images posted by millions of people on Instagram, our initial investigation showed there were tens of thousands of cruel selfies on Instagram taken with wild animals. Sadly, sharing cruel wildlife selfies on social media encourages more people to take their own photos. This continues the ongoing suffering and cruelty towards wildlife. Don’t be part of this ugly picture.
Together we moved Instagram
In December 2017, our Wildlife Selfie Code campaign was so successful that it influenced Instagram, one of the biggest social media sites, to educate its users around the suffering wildlife selfies can cause to animals.
Thanks to the 250,000 people who signed up to our Wildlife Selfie Code! Together, we were able to move Instagram to launch a new 'content advisory page', to educate users about the issues these photos cause for wild animals. Now, when any of Instagram’s 800 million users search hashtags like #koalaselfie and #slothselfie, which could be associated with harmful interactions with animals, they are warned about the dangers of this trend.
Together we’re filtering cruelty out of more pictures every day.