The link between social media and animal cruelty.

There is a link between animal cruelty and social media,with craze for selfies with these animals causing deaths or discomforts in some cases. Recently,it was reported that a small dolphin died of dehydration when tourists took it out of water for selfies.Tourists killed a La Plata dolphin on a beach in the resort town of Santa Teresita. They passed the animal around while vying for selfies. Eventually it died of dehydration. Tourists mishandled two peacocks when taking selfies, resulting in the death of the animals. A man at Palm Beach in Florida dragged a small shark out of the water in order to take a selfie. Tourists snapping selfies in Costa Rica are stopping endangered sea turtles from breeding. And there is a dark side to those ‘cute’ viral videos of slow lorises. Many tourists see wild animals as exotic and adorable objects, as props for photos and nothing more. Social media highlights our tendency to view animals as merely things to be used, and often for the most trivial reasons. Selfies taken with wild animals and posted on Instagram may appear innocent and cute. Cruelty towards animals is not just wrong in itself as this kind of behavior may make people more cruel in general. continue