Social Media Moderation Results 2025

From Monday 28th July to Sunday 3rd August, Pet Advertising Advisory Group (PAAG) members and external volunteers conducted the annual social media moderation week. During this week volunteers from across PAAG member organisations searched social media for pet adverts and evaluated them against set criteria. The objective was to improve our understanding of the state of pet advertising on these platforms. This, in turn, allows PAAG to make informed decisions on how to campaign for the improved welfare of pets advertised for sale online.

Overall, 355 adverts were moderated. 214 of these were from Facebook, 83 from Tiktok, and 58 from Instagram.

The key findings were as follows:

• 72.68% of total adverts moderated breached PAAG’s Advertising Standards.
• The main issues identified within these advertisements overall were:
  1. No photo of mother included in advert of young animal: 62.25% of all ads
  2. No age included in pet advert: 46.19% of all ads
  3. No microchip status detailed in pet advert: 28.2% of all ads
  4. Sex of animal not specified in pet advert: 23.94% of all ads.
• 72.95% of total adverts breached the regulations of the moderated platforms (the highest being TikTok, with 97.5% of adverts going against the platform’s regulations).
• 17.46% of all ads moderated were believed to be potential scams.

This new data reaffirms PAAG’s position on the risks associated with getting a pet through social media. There are few safeguards when it comes to advertising pets on social media, putting animal welfare and consumers at risk. We continue to advise those looking to buy a pet to avoid using social media to find one.