Shine a light on it
Most animal rescue videos are questionable. Some are genuine.
Instead of trying to document every known fake rescue channel, we'll help identify which channels are safe to watch and support.
The problem
A staged rescue is a real animal in real distress
Across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and X, a genre of "rescue" videos have emerged that put an animal in danger on purpose so that they can then save it on camera. Wildlife biologists, animal welfare organizations, and journalists have documented this at scale for years now. The platforms know. It keeps happening anyway.