Document the need. Don’t sensationalize the suffering.

RescueBeacon is built around several basic principles:

Document the need. Don’t sensationalize the suffering. Users should provide enough information for others to understand an animal’s situation and determine how they may be able to help. Content should not unnecessarily display suffering, injury, death, fear, or distress for shock value or engagement.

Accuracy matters. RescueBeacon relies on users to provide truthful and reasonably accurate information. Users should distinguish between confirmed information, reported information, personal observations, estimates, and opinions.

Urgency is allowed. Manipulation is not. Animal emergencies can require urgent communication. Users may communicate genuine urgency, deadlines, financial needs, and medical concerns. Users may not manufacture urgency, guilt, fear, or emotional pressure in order to obtain donations, engagement, or other assistance.

Disagreement is allowed. Harassment is not. Animal welfare involves legitimate disagreements about sheltering, rescue practices, veterinary treatment, euthanasia, adoption, legislation, funding, and other issues. RescueBeacon does not require users to agree with one another. It does require users to communicate without harassment, threats, intimidation, doxxing, or targeted abuse.

Content posted to RescueBeacon should have a meaningful connection to animal welfare or the purposes of the RescueBeacon platform.

Examples include:

• Animal rescue and rehabilitation
• Emergency medical needs
• Veterinary care
• Transport
• Foster placement
• Adoption
• Shelter and rescue operations
• Animal supplies
• Community assistance
• Spay/neuter initiatives
• Wildlife rehabilitation
• Animal welfare education
• Fundraising connected to legitimate animal welfare needs
• Lost, found, stray, or displaced animals
• Animal welfare organizations and service providers

Users may not intentionally create or distribute fabricated rescue situations, animals, emergencies, medical conditions, or other circumstances.

RescueBeacon permits reasonable documentation of difficult animal welfare circumstances when that documentation is relevant to the animal’s care or the request for assistance.

However, RescueBeacon prohibits content that unnecessarily depicts suffering or is primarily intended to shock, disgust, entertain, or generate engagement.

Prohibited content includes:

• Graphic depictions of severe injury when the graphic detail is unnecessary to communicate the need
• Images or videos emphasizing exposed tissue, mutilation, or extreme bodily trauma for shock value
• Graphic depictions of animal death or decomposition
• Content celebrating or glorifying animal suffering
• Gore posted primarily to generate engagement
• Graphic veterinary procedures when the graphic material is unnecessary for the stated purpose
• Repeatedly reposting graphic material after the underlying need has changed or been resolved
• Content intentionally altered to make an animal’s condition appear more severe

Generally permitted:

• Non-graphic photographs documenting an injury or medical condition
• Photographs needed to identify an animal
• Veterinary documentation relevant to a medical Flare
• Before-and-after photographs used to document rehabilitation
• Educational or documentary material presented with appropriate context
• Images of difficult circumstances when the material is reasonably necessary to explain an animal’s situation

When sensitive imagery is necessary, users should select the least graphic image reasonably capable of communicating the need.

RescueBeacon may restrict, blur, remove, or limit the distribution of sensitive content when appropriate.

RescueBeacon permits emotional storytelling. Animal welfare is inherently emotional, and users should not be prohibited from expressing genuine concern, grief, urgency, or compassion.

However, users may not deliberately manipulate others through false, exaggerated, or coercive claims.

Prohibited conduct includes:

• Fabricating an animal’s condition to encourage donations
• Inventing or exaggerating a deadline
• Claiming an animal will die unless a specific amount is donated when that claim is unsupported
• Guilt-tripping users for failing to donate
• Shaming users for the amount they donate
• Suggesting that someone who does not donate is responsible for an animal’s death when there is no reasonable basis for that claim
• Fabricating scarcity or urgency
• Creating false countdowns
• Deliberately exaggerating veterinary costs or other expenses
• Using an animal’s suffering primarily as an engagement strategy
• Repeatedly reposting distressing content solely to increase reach or donations

Examples

Permitted: “This dog needs emergency surgery. The rescue has received a $1,200 estimate and currently has $700 available.”

Not permitted: “DONATE RIGHT NOW OR THIS DOG WILL DIE. Anyone who scrolls past this is choosing to let him die.”

The difference is not whether the content is emotional. The difference is whether the urgency is genuine and responsibly communicated.

Because Flares may be used to communicate urgent financial needs, users are expected to maintain a high standard of accuracy and transparency.

Users creating a fundraising-related Flare should provide, when reasonably available:

• The animal’s identity or identifying description
• The nature of the need
• The intended use of funds
• The requested amount or estimated cost
• Relevant veterinary or service information
• The organization, rescue, individual, or other party receiving the funds
• A method of obtaining additional information where appropriate

Users should update their Flare when material circumstances change. This includes circumstances where:

• The fundraising goal has been reached
• The animal no longer requires assistance
• The estimated cost has materially changed
• The animal has received treatment
• The animal has been transferred
• The animal has died
• The requested funds are no longer needed
• The fundraiser has been canceled

Prohibited fundraising conduct includes:

• Fraudulent fundraisers
• Fabricated veterinary bills, invoices, receipts, diagnoses, or other documentation
• Fabricated animals or rescue situations
• Impersonating a rescue, shelter, veterinarian, owner, foster, or other person
• Misrepresenting who will receive donations
• Misrepresenting how donations will be used
• Concealing material information that would reasonably affect a donor’s decision
• Redirecting donations without authorization
• Using an animal welfare Flare to solicit unrelated personal expenses
• Creating duplicate Flares to circumvent platform limits or moderation
• Continuing to solicit funds after the underlying need has been resolved without clearly explaining the continued need

RescueBeacon does not guarantee the accuracy, legitimacy, or outcome of every fundraiser unless RescueBeacon expressly states that a particular fundraiser has been verified.

Users should independently evaluate fundraising requests before donating.

Users may share information about an animal’s medical condition for legitimate rescue, educational, or fundraising purposes.

Users should not present speculation as a confirmed diagnosis.

Where appropriate, users should distinguish between:

• A confirmed veterinary diagnosis
• A suspected condition
• A reported condition
• A personal observation
• An estimate or prognosis
• An opinion

Users may not fabricate or materially misrepresent:

• Diagnoses
• Prognoses
• Treatment recommendations
• Veterinary records
• Veterinary bills
• Medication information
• Treatment outcomes

RescueBeacon is not a veterinary provider and does not independently establish medical diagnoses through user-generated content.

RescueBeacon prioritizes the privacy and safety of children.

Users should avoid including minors in RescueBeacon content unless their presence is irreplaceably necessary.

Prohibited content includes:

• Sexualized content involving minors
• Exploitative content involving minors
• Content depicting abuse or exploitation of minors
• Posting a minor’s identifying information without appropriate authorization
• Posting a minor’s home address, school, phone number, or other sensitive identifying information
• Using images of children primarily to manipulate donations or engagement
• Soliciting donations directly from minors
• Attempting to contact or identify minors through RescueBeacon

Users should not include a child’s identifying information merely because the child appears in an otherwise legitimate animal welfare photograph—RescueBeacon does not support any content with minors.

Where a minor is incidentally visible in an image, RescueBeacon may request that the image be cropped, blurred, replaced, or removed.

Users may not use RescueBeacon to publish another person’s private or sensitive information without authorization.

Prohibited information includes, but is not limited to:

• Home addresses, especially unrelated to a publicly accessed rescue
• Personal phone numbers
• Personal email addresses
• Financial account information
• Login credentials
• Government identification numbers
• Private veterinary records containing unnecessary personal information
• Private communications
• Non-public identifying information
• Information that could facilitate stalking, harassment, or physical harm

Users should remove unnecessary personal information from photographs, documents, screenshots, veterinary records, and other uploaded materials.

Some animal locations are sensitive.

Users should not publicly disclose information that could reasonably place an animal, wildlife population, rescue operation, foster home, shelter, or other person at increased risk.

This may include the exact location of:

• Animals involved in active cruelty investigations
• Abandoned animals being actively rescued
• Wildlife nests, dens, or rehabilitation locations
• Animals at risk of theft or exploitation
• Animals being removed from dangerous circumstances
• Confidential foster locations
• Shelters or rescues where disclosure could create a safety concern

RescueBeacon may restrict location information when necessary to protect an animal or person.

RescueBeacon does not permit users to use the platform to harass, threaten, intimidate, or target other people.

Prohibited conduct includes:

• Threats of violence
• Doxxing
• Publishing private information to encourage harassment
• Targeted intimidation
• Repeated unwanted contact
• Encouraging others to harass a person or organization
• Review bombing
• Brigading
• Coordinated harassment campaigns
• Personal attacks unrelated to a legitimate animal welfare discussion
• Impersonating another person to damage their reputation
• Encouraging users to confront or retaliate against an alleged abuser outside appropriate channels

Criticism is permitted.

Users may criticize shelters, rescues, organizations, policies, practices, or public decisions when the criticism is expressed in good faith and does not cross into harassment, threats, or knowingly false allegations.

Users may not knowingly post materially false or deceptive information.

This includes:

• Fake rescue stories
• Fake animals
• Fake veterinary documentation
• Fake donation campaigns
• False claims of organizational affiliation
• False claims of professional credentials
• Impersonation
• Deliberately altered evidence
• Fabricated screenshots
• Knowingly false claims presented as factual information

RescueBeacon may take action when content is materially misleading even if individual statements are technically true but presented in a way designed to create a substantially false impression.

RescueBeacon prohibits:

• Sexual content involving animals
• Sexualized depictions of animals
• Bestiality content
• Animal fighting content that promotes or glorifies fighting
• Content promoting animal torture or deliberate cruelty
• Content encouraging violence against people or animals
• Content celebrating serious injury or death
• Content depicting cruelty primarily for entertainment or shock

Educational, documentary, historical, or advocacy content discussing animal cruelty may be permitted when presented in an appropriate and contextual manner.

RescueBeacon does not permit users to encourage, organize, facilitate, or glorify animal cruelty.

This includes encouraging:

• Abandonment
• Torture
• Deliberate injury
• Animal fighting
• Poisoning
• Illegal exploitation
• Deliberate neglect
• Retaliatory violence against an animal

Where content documents suspected abuse or neglect for the purpose of seeking help, users should focus on documenting the circumstances and obtaining appropriate assistance rather than encouraging vigilante retaliation.

RescueBeacon is intended for meaningful participation rather than artificial amplification.

Prohibited conduct includes:

• Spam
• Repetitive automated posting
• Fake accounts
• Engagement farming
• Artificially inflating views, reactions, or other metrics
• Repeatedly posting substantially identical content without a legitimate reason
• Using bots or automated systems in ways that violate RescueBeacon rules
• Manipulating Flare visibility through deceptive behavior
• Creating multiple accounts to evade restrictions
• Circumventing moderation actions

Commercial content may be permitted when it is relevant to animal welfare and appropriate to the RescueBeacon community.

Examples may include:

• Veterinary services
• Animal transport
• Boarding
• Pet supplies
• Rescue-related professional services
• Educational services
• Animal welfare organizations
• Fundraising events

Unrelated commercial advertising, spam, or solicitation may be removed.

RescueBeacon may establish additional rules governing paid promotion, sponsored content, or other commercial activity.

RescueBeacon permits good-faith discussion and advocacy concerning animal welfare.

This may include discussion of:

• Animal welfare legislation
• Shelter policy
• Veterinary access
• Spay/neuter policy
• Animal cruelty laws
• Funding for animal welfare programs
• Public policy affecting animals
• Rescue and shelter standards

Political or advocacy content may not be used to threaten, harass, doxx, or target individuals or groups.

RescueBeacon does not require users to share a particular political viewpoint.

Users must not use artificial intelligence or other editing tools to fabricate or materially misrepresent an animal welfare situation.

Prohibited examples include:

• AI-generated animals presented as real animals
• AI-generated rescue scenes presented as authentic
• Fabricated veterinary documentation
• Altering an injury to make it appear substantially worse
• Fabricating evidence
• Deepfakes or impersonation
• AI-generated content presented as authentic documentation of an emergency

Ordinary editing is generally permitted, including:

• Cropping
• Resizing
• Brightness or exposure adjustments
• Removing irrelevant backgrounds
• Adding text or graphic design
• Formatting content for accessibility

When an alteration could reasonably affect how viewers understand the animal’s condition or circumstances, users should disclose that the media has been materially altered.

Users should exercise additional caution when posting about wildlife and sensitive species.

Content should not disclose information that could facilitate:

• Poaching
• Illegal collection
• Trafficking
• Harassment
• Exploitation
• Disturbance of nesting or breeding sites
• Illegal possession

RescueBeacon may limit location information or remove content when necessary to protect wildlife.

Users may not intentionally interfere with legitimate rescue, veterinary, shelter, foster, or animal welfare operations through RescueBeacon.

Prohibited conduct may include:

• Providing knowingly false information to disrupt a rescue
• Impersonating a rescue or authorized representative
• Redirecting donations without authorization
• Revealing confidential rescue plans
• Publishing protected animal locations
• Misrepresenting authority over an animal
• Attempting to take control of an animal through deceptive claims
• Interfering with an active veterinary or rescue operation
• Encouraging others to interfere with an ongoing rescue

Users should report legitimate concerns through appropriate channels rather than attempting to take matters into their own hands.

Certain content may be subject to additional review, restriction, warning labels, limited distribution, or other measures.

This may include:

• Graphic medical content
• Content involving death
• Content involving suspected abuse
• Sensitive wildlife information
• Content involving minors
• High-value fundraising campaigns
• Disputed rescue claims
• Content subject to credible reports of fraud
• Content involving an immediate safety concern

Additional review does not necessarily mean that the content violates this policy.

Users may report content they believe violates this Content Policy, the Terms of Service, or applicable law.

Reports should provide enough information for RescueBeacon to understand the concern.

Where appropriate, users should identify:

• The content being reported
• The nature of the violation
• Relevant context
• Whether there is an immediate safety concern

Users should not abuse the reporting system to suppress legitimate criticism, disagreements, or viewpoints they simply dislike.

Submitting knowingly false or malicious reports may itself result in enforcement action.

RescueBeacon may take action when content or conduct violates this Content Policy.

Depending on the circumstances, actions may include:

• Removing content
• Restricting content visibility
• Adding a warning or sensitive-content designation
• Restricting sharing or discovery
• Restricting a Flare
• Restricting fundraising functionality
• Requesting additional information or documentation
• Removing a Flare
• Temporarily restricting an account
• Suspending an account
• Permanently terminating an account
• Removing access to particular features
• Referring matters to appropriate authorities where legally or operationally appropriate

RescueBeacon may consider:

• The severity of the conduct
• The potential harm
• Whether the conduct was intentional
• Whether the content was part of a legitimate animal welfare effort
• Whether the violation was repeated
• Whether the user attempted to correct the issue
• The credibility and reliability of available information
• Whether vulnerable people or animals were involved
• Whether the content creates an immediate safety concern

RescueBeacon may take immediate action when necessary to protect people, animals, the integrity of the platform, or an active rescue effort.

Where an enforcement action is eligible for appeal, users may request reconsideration through the process provided by RescueBeacon.

An appeal should explain why the user believes the decision was incorrect and provide any relevant context or information.

RescueBeacon may maintain certain enforcement decisions where content presents a significant safety, privacy, fraud, or abuse concern.

Repeatedly reposting removed content or creating new accounts to evade enforcement does not constitute a valid appeal.

RescueBeacon may prioritize legitimate emergency animal welfare situations during moderation.

Urgency does not exempt content from this policy.

Users should communicate emergency circumstances accurately and provide actionable information whenever possible.

RescueBeacon may restrict content that creates additional risk even when the underlying situation is a genuine emergency.

An emergency can justify urgency. It does not justify deception, harassment, graphic sensationalism, or fraud.

RescueBeacon recognizes that context matters.

Content that could ordinarily appear concerning may be permitted when there is a legitimate purpose such as:

• Veterinary education
• Animal welfare education
• Journalism
• Documentation of abuse
• Scientific discussion
• Historical documentation
• Legitimate rescue operations
• Public safety
• Reporting suspected wrongdoing

RescueBeacon may consider context when determining whether content violates this policy.

At the same time, labeling content “educational,” “awareness,” or “rescue” does not automatically permit otherwise prohibited material.

RescueBeacon is designed to connect people with animals and organizations that need help—not to turn suffering into spectacle.

We want users to be able to say:

“This animal needs help.”

We do not want the platform to encourage:

“Look how terrible this is—keep watching.”

Users are encouraged to communicate with urgency, compassion, honesty, and respect.

Document the need. Tell the truth. Protect vulnerable people and animals. Ask for help without exploiting suffering.

That is the standard RescueBeacon seeks to maintain across the platform.