Riley and I used to like TikTok, watching the animal videos posted, and being homebound it could be really entertaining and help pass the time.  What isn't entertaining is seeing animals thrown in closets with firecrackers, dunked or submerged in water against their will, made to fight each other, forced to inhale or ingest something to get them "high", among other things that really shouldn't be happening or allowed to be posted. While much of the content is harmless, there are videos where animals are being mistreated, for laughs, likes, or follows. TikTok, a video-sharing social networking service owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based company, is used to create short dance, lip-sync, comedy, and talent videos. Animals are often exploited and used in videos and are being deliberately stressed, mishandled, mistreated and outright abused by users to achieve more viewers, comments or "TikTok fame". A recent video posted on TikTok shows a dog being used as bait to lure crocodiles, then pulling them to safety at the last moment. In one video a poor lab was pulled up by his leash, but unfortunately did not make it. The crocodile jumped out of the water to pursue him, and ended up taking the dog submerging him into the river. 

By allowing videos exploiting animals to be used on their platform, TikTok is perpetuating entertainment at the expense of animals, and fostering an environment where animals are being treated poorly or hurt for a laugh. Tell Zhang Yiming, CEO and founder of ByteDance, to stop allowing videos of animals being forced to perform in dangerous stunts, terrorized, thrown, hit or kicked, or any other means of mistreatment for a laugh or a comment on TikTok's platform. In some videos animals are often confused and distressed, the video creator noting that they are "high" or "drunk", after being forced to inhale THC or other substances toxic to them just to make a video. This has to stop!  Many of TikTok's users are younger and instead of seeing examples of kindness and respect for animals, are competing with one another to make an even more outrageous video than their peers. This is terrible news for animals! To make matters worse, users are encouraged to copycat or recreate a popular or "trending" video. Allowing people to create and recreate videos in which animals are often thrown, screamed at, threatened and frightened, terrorized, made to fight one another, dunked or submerged, or otherwise mistreated is unacceptable, and compounding bad behavior by creating a cycle of the same abuse seen in "successful" videos. In one video, a cat and dog are thrown together into a closet while the video creator tosses in a handful of firecrackers and slams the door. Videos such as these are considered #pranking your pet and deemed ok. While TikTok has a feature allowing users to "report" videos they think are inappropriate for closer scrutiny, these types of videos should not be allowed in the first place. Demand App stores GooglePlay, Amazon App Store, Windows Phone Store and Apple only carry TikTok's video sharing platform if its Terms of Service is updated to include language specifically banning animal cruelty or videos involving animals for entertainment at the expense of the animal, and that any and all videos in which animals' safety and welfare are not being considered are removed and not be allowed to be posted. Tell TikTok to send a message and set an example that animals should not be allowed to be terrorized for entertainment and animal cruelty isn't funny! This is not about censorship or trying to control or limit any freedoms, except the "freedom" to hurt animals on a social media platform for entertainment.

TikTok should also be reporting animal abuse to the authorities, not hosting the abuser's videos on their platform! Remember that it is customary that other users recreate or copycat "popular" videos, causing more animals to be abused in the exact same way as the original video. Demand that TikTok report the initial uploader to local authorities to be held responsible for their actions, and that TikTok be held legally responsible for every video that is allowed to be uploaded on its platform in response to the original video, perpetuating the original abuse. This must stop!

Please share this petition as much as possible, and if you have children then have a conversation about TikTok and make sure pets and other animals are not being mistreated for "TikTok fame". If you see abuse please report it immediately. Imagine what the animals are feeling. It is heartbreaking but it is time to stop crying and affect change, and make a difference. At the time of writing this there are over 475 of us...imagine if every single one of us did something tomorrow or in the coming week to make a shelter dog, a neighbor's dog or our own pet's day special. Love and good only conquers and outweighs the bad if there is enough of it.  We have to be more important than the abusers. We have to be greater and more in number than them, too. I'm begging you if you are reading this to try and make a difference in a dog's life.

Thank you, and please share this petition, and talk about it. 

Links:

In this video/post, dogs are being used to lure crocodiles, and are eaten alive.

https://www.facebook.com/animalhopeandwellness/videos/225371365387858/

TikTokplatform hosts video showing fake vet performing surgery on French Bulldog in Central Florida, dog doesn't survive:

https://www.wesh.com/article/tiktok-fake-vet-dog-surgery-florida/35523213

March 2021...This sick piece of human filth strangled her dog and poured perfume in its eyes because she "knew it would get me attention on the internet". She then threatened in a video to kill it. THIS is what I've been talking about. These platforms do NOTHING about this. They need to have standards and rules in place to stop this,  by not responding to this they actually encourage it.

https://animalpetitions.org/973550/instagram-stop-reportedly-giving-animal-cruelty-a-global-platform/?fbclid=IwAR2QWL0RXKWY9qm48TulBDHgSRyz9__cAvMsBhx5MvdR5VXfrpWB4H6WI1k