CRUELTY FOR CLICKS — how social media is fuelling wildlife crime in Ireland.
From music video style TikToks to Facebook photo competitions, The Journal Investigates can reveal how cruel content is being glamorised and promoted online.
Experts believe the disturbing trend, known as cyber-enabled wildlife crime, is contributing to higher incidents of wildlife harm.
And despite a wealth of digital evidence, authorities are unable to take action due to a lack of resources and high burdens of proof required in court.
“There is the potential there to gather evidence from social media, but it needs expenditure, it needs resources,” Conor Dowling, chief inspector with the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA), told The Journal Investigates.
“And we are a bit lacking in that area, certainly the ISPCA is, as a charity, along with other agencies as well.
“But I think it needs to be something that is seen as a priority.”
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WARNING: This article contains graphic images of animal cruelty
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The Journal Investigates has gathered hundreds of videos and images of wildlife cruelty posted publicly on apps such as TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook.
All are from Irish users who use the content sharing platforms to share footage of badger baiting, fox maulings and the catapult killing of birds.
Many of the videos include hashtags that allow users to easily find and connect with accounts posting similar content.
On TikTok — an app most popular with younger audiences — The Journal Investigates found dozens of illegal hunting clips filmed in Ireland, and edited with popular memes, music and sounds.
Typically, users post anonymously, using hashtags and wildlife emojis that indicate the account posts pro-hunting content.
Some have thousands of followers, with clips being shared and ‘liked’ hundreds of times.
One account includes an individual involved in the making and selling of sinister devices used in badger baiting.
The crude contraptions are designed to protect a dog’s mouth while mauling a badger.
Videos posted to the Irish man’s account show him designing, making and then fitting the devices on dogs.
Other Irish content posted shows young people involved in “catting”, a slang term for using a catapult to kill birds and other small animals.
Videos show the weapons being used along with images of dead pigeons, crows and magpies.
Under the 1976 and 2000 Wildlife Acts, all wild birds and their nests, eggs and young are protected throughout the State.
Those found targeting the birds face a fine of up to €100,000, prison or both.
Only those with a special pest control licence, issued by the NPWS, can kill specific species of birds and wild mammals using limited means.
While it is legal to hunt foxes and rabbits, the Wildlife Act states that this must only be carried out as a form of pest control, with no unnecessary suffering caused to the animal.
The Journal Investigates contacted TikTok about some of the videos we found on its platform.
A spokesperson said it “strictly prohibits” content that promotes violent or graphic content, including animal cruelty.
“We use a combination of technology and human moderation to identify and remove content and ban accounts which praise, support, and/or represent abuse of animals,” they said.
“Additionally, we have specialised misinformation moderators trained to detect and remove this kind of violative content.”
TikTok also said it holds itself accountable “to our community and others” by publishing a quarterly ‘Community Guidelines Enforcement Reports” detailing content removed from the app.
Of the videos removed in the first quarter of this year which violated policies on animal abuse, 99.1% were proactively removed, the spokesperson said.
The videos highlighted by The Journal Investigates have also been removed, TikTok confirmed.
Snapchat, a messaging app where users exchange pictures and videos which disappear after being viewed, is also popular within the illegal hunting world.
The Journal Investigates found content which had initially been posted on the platform, regularly appearing across other apps.
That included an image of a teenager holding a bloodied and dead badger cub by its tail.
After being uploaded to Snapchat, the photo was also posted on a private Facebook group set up for hunters operating in the midlands area.
We also found evidence of wildlife being sold on the app, a serious offence under the Wildlife Act.
The Journal Investigates revealed yesterday that foxes, badgers, hares and rabbits are being snared and sold as live bait inside illegal hunting networks here.
We obtained one Snapchat image of a caged fox being sold for €100. The cruel advertisement was also cross-posted to a secretive hunting group on Facebook.
In a statement, Snapchat said it had “zero tolerance” towards “abhorrent” violence and cruelty against animals.
“If we find this content, or if it is reported to us through our confidential in-app tools, we will remove it immediately and take appropriate action,” a spokesperson said.
On Facebook, exposed by The Journal Investigates as a platform used to traffic Irish wildlife, some pro-hunting groups run photo competitions of cruel animal attacks.
In one post, dozens of pictures were posted by members of dogs mauling animals, including protected badgers and hares. The image with the most ‘likes’ is deemed the winner.
We also found multiple posts promoting the use and sale of catapults to target birds and other wildlife including squirrels and rabbits.
After being contacted by The Journal Investigates, a Facebook spokesperson said it had removed some of the posts highlighted.
The social media giant also stated that content promoting crimes against wildlife goes against its community standards.
At the time of publication, The Journal Investigates was able to find dozens of images, videos and posts — both new and old — showing wildlife harm, and we have alerted Facebook.
Dowling said that while enforcement agencies in Ireland are aware of the social media presence of wildlife criminals, using online content as evidence in court is “not that simple”.
The ISPCA enforcement officer explained: “People sometimes think, well that person’s got that (video) on their Facebook page, it’s straightforward.
“But in terms of prosecuting for criminal offences under the law, it’s not that simple.
What’s shown on social media, the provenance of that video is not known. If you can get the original video on the phone, it’s a different matter.
Dowling said enforcement agencies require high quality evidence to put before the courts, especially in terms of online content.
“You’ve got your metadata of where it was recorded, when it was recorded and that’s a lot more valuable,” he said.
Tackling cyber-enabled wildlife crime also requires resources, something that authorities and agencies here lack, he said.
“I look at some of our colleagues in the UK who have much, much better resources devoted towards that sort of thing.
“They have specialists who can analyse mobile phones, and much more — we just don’t have the resources to be looking at forensic evidence.”
Dowling added: “I think there’s a lot of potential gain from it, because the people that are involved in crimes against animals are often involved in other crimes as well.”
In 2020, the NPWS announced that it was setting up a dedicated crime unit to protect Ireland’s natural habitats and wildlife.
However, a decision was taken to not proceed with a wildlife crime unit with responsibility under a new Wildlife Enforcement and Nature Protection Directorate.
NPWS has declined requests from The Journal Investigates to make documents surrounding that decision public.
In response to an Access to Information on the Environment request, NPWS said disclosing the documents would be contrary to the public interest, would “adversely affect” the course of justice and “prejudice or impair” the prevention, detection or investigation of offences.
The Journal Investigates has appealed that decision.
In a report released in July, the UK’s largest animal charity said social media was fuelling a rise in animal abuse cases in England and Wales.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) found evidence of attacks being coordinated and shared online, especially by younger people.
It followed a 23% increase in attacks on animals and wildlife using weapons in 2023, compared with the previous year.
Dr Andrew Kelly has been involved in multiple prosecutions for crimes against animals in Ireland.
The former ISPCA CEO, who now heads up UK- based organisation Freedom for Animals group, said it is especially difficult to gather evidence against those involved in wildlife crime.
He told The Journal Investigates: “As you’re obviously very well aware, the very nature of these offences makes it very difficult to gather evidence without significant resources and undercover work.
Most animal protection organisations in Ireland simply don’t have the resources to do it.
Kelly said when it comes to prosecuting offenders off the back of online activity, it is even more difficult.
“First of all, you have to identify the individuals that are in the video,” he said.
“You have to find out when it was taken, where it was taken, what offences may have been committed, whether that’s under the Wildlife Act or under Animal Health and Welfare Act, etc. And it’s very difficult to get that evidence from social media, really.”
In a statement to The Journal Investigates, the NPWS — which enforces wildlife legislation — said it could not comment on its “investigative approaches” when asked if it monitored social media.
“Combating wildlife crime remains a core mandate of NPWS in its mission to ‘protect nature’,” a spokesperson said.
“This ethos is embedded throughout the organisation of 540 people, in each Division and in each Directorate and we continue to deliver on this mandate.
“Preventing, investigating and prosecuting wildlife crime is a collaborative effort within NPWS.”
Reporter: Patricia Devlin • Editor: Maria Delaney • Video Production: Nicky Ryan • Social Media: Sadbh Cox • Main Image Design: Lorcan O’Reilly
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