TikTok for animal shelters and rescues: Tips, tricks and best practices
TikTok can showcase your animals and your mission, and it can be easier than it looks
Published October 16, 2026
Of all the top social media apps, TikTok can feel the most daunting to new users. Maybe your shelter has started a TikTok account, but it’s not taking off. Maybe your rescue hasn’t had the time or energy to even think about starting one. Or maybe you’re wondering, what’s the point?
If you’re somewhere between TikTok-curious and TikTok-frustrated, read on for advice from TikTok-fluent animal welfare professionals.
First, why are shelters and rescues using TikTok?
Unlike most social media apps, TikTok is less of a social forum and more of an entertainment and viral discovery platform—dominated by vertical short-form videos. Users are served content based on their interests and viewing history rather than who they follow or friend.
Nicole Jaworski, senior director of social media at Humane World for Animals, says TikTok is a natural fit for shelters and rescue organizations—and among the strongest social media platforms for reaching new supporters. In her view, it’s just as valuable as Instagram.
“It really benefits shelters and nonprofits to get on TikTok because the algorithm will push your content out regardless of how many followers you have,” Jaworski says. “So if there is content that is resonating with your audience, you don’t have to have a large following for it to go viral.”
That was the experience Colette Bradley, director of marketing at the Humane Society of the Pikes Peaks Region in Colorado, had after her team started their TikTok account in 2022.
“Our second post went super viral,” she says, “which I think was partially luck, and partially because it was about a 30-pound cat.”
@humanesocietypikespeak What can we say! We like them big. We like them plumpy! #cat #catsoftiktok #catsoftiktok #animalsoftiktok #animals #sheltercat ♬ original sound - Birdies
A viral video like that can reach people far beyond your local community, drawing in a global audience for an account, notes Kaitlin Pechin, digital marketing manager at the Humane Society of Broward County in Florida.
That wide reach benefits the entire animal welfare field, Bradley adds. TikTok videos can promote adoptions and also raise awareness of all the other work shelters and rescues do, from spay/neuter and community cat programs to lost pet reunifications.
“I think it’s just good for the industry,” Bradley says. “It’s important for people to understand the importance of sheltering and that it’s not just adoptions.”
“It really benefits shelters and nonprofits to get on TikTok because the algorithm will push your content out regardless of how many followers you have. So if there is content that is resonating with your audience, you don’t have to have a large following for it to go viral.”
—Nicole Jaworski, Humane World for Animals
Reaching Gen Z through TikTok
Pechin says her goal with TikTok is still to get pets adopted—the more people who see her videos, the more people know about the shelter—though she says Instagram more directly drives adoptions and donations. She also points to education and awareness as a key benefit of TikTok, especially for the platform’s Gen Z-heavy audience.
She hopes her shelter’s Gen Z followers will think of adoption when they’re ready to get a pet and recognize that shelters have animals of all types. “There are some incredible pets who come through these doors that people feel they can only purchase,” Pechin says.
Bradley likes to think about how TikTok can lay the groundwork for fundraising, as the Gen Z audience grows into the next generation of potential donors.
“You don’t have to be asking for money on TikTok,” she says. “You just have to get in front of them so when they are ready, they’re thinking about your organization.”
Shelters and rescues can also use TikTok to share essential animal welfare information, such as the benefits of spay/neuter, ways to help wildlife and disaster planning for pets.
The educational opportunities are “endless,” Jaworski says.
What shelter and rescue content works best on TikTok?
Shelters and rescues have a TikTok goldmine at their fingertips, says Jaworski. The algorithm rewards raw, authentic content, with real-life footage, emotions, trends and funny moments.
This means animal rescue stories perform well: scenes of animals being rescued, vet visits, behind-the-scenes rehab and before-and-after transformations. Videos of adoptable animals are usually popular, too.
Some of Bradley’s favorite TikTok videos from her shelter include facility walkthroughs that showcase their adoptable cats and dogs. The key, she says, is to jump on trends and have some fun along the way. One example: talking about animals’ “red flags” and “green flags” as if you’re giving dating advice (a red flag might be that the animal “cuddles too much”).
Bradley says videos of her shelter’s longtime residents do particularly well. One of her top-performing TikTok videos starts with the text “Meet the cat who has been in our shelter the longest,” with the video zooming to a sign with the cat’s photo. Then the video cuts to a fluffy tabby named Kekoa, nuzzling a hand for treats and scritches. Kekoa drew 60,500 likes and over 1,000 comments.
Another popular Pikes Peak TikTok starts with a shot of their shelter building from the outside, with the simple text, “What dog breeds does your shelter have?” Then the video cuts to quick clips of adoptable dogs with text overlaid on each: “Dexter is a Rocky Mountain banshee. Spain is a Spanish stinkybutt. Lapus is a chonkygorl. Babu Frick is just cute as frick. Dude is the dude.” (The caption: “We have only the best and most unique dogs! Do you have any of these breeds or a similar one at home?”)
Pechin’s TikTok strategy is not as unique to the platform. To save time and enable a regular posting schedule, she reuses many of the videos she also posts to Instagram and doesn’t pay as much attention to TikTok-specific trends. “I create one piece of content and share it across all platforms,” she says. “It’s easier to stay consistent that way, and I’m not having to re-create the wheel.”
Most of her shelter’s top TikTok and Instagram videos start with a staffer posting a red “I’m adopted!” sticker on an animal’s kennel. Then the camera cuts to footage of the dog in their kennel, meeting the family in the waiting room, and then walking out the door toward their new life and home.
@humanebroward OUR LONGEST RESIDENT IS HOME!!! 😭❤️🙌 After almost 130 days of waiting, our sweet Mary Poppins has FINALLY found the perfect family, and there truly was not a dry eye in the building when she walked out those doors. 🥹❤️ When a pet stays with us as long as Mary did, they become such a big part of our shelter family. We all got to know her sweet personality, her quirks, her favorite things and just how much love this special girl had to give, and we spent nearly four months hoping that the right people would finally walk through our doors and see in her what all of us saw every single day. And they did. ❤️ Mary Poppins is now Hatty (yes, like the hockey hat trick!), and she has found a family of HUGE hockey fans, which means she gets to watch the Panthers’ first game of the season from the comfort of her very own HOME, surrounded by people who absolutely adore her. We truly could not have written a more perfect ending for our girl. 🥹🐾 It really does take a village sometimes, and this happy ever after belongs to every single person who shared Mary’s posts, liked, commented, told a friend about her, advocated for her and helped keep her story going during those 130 days. THANK YOU. ❤️ Every share matters, and sometimes it helps a very deserving dog finally find her people. A huge thank you to @sbennett_93 and @bennysbuddies9 for choosing Mary as one of their special dogs and generously covering her adoption fee, and most importantly, thank you to Hatty’s wonderful new family for choosing our girl and promising to love her for the rest of her years. ❤️🏒 Happy life, Hatty. You waited a long time for this one, sweet girl, but your forever was worth the wait. 😭❤️ We still have so many wonderful pets waiting for their own happy ending. If you can’t adopt, please keep sharing their stories. You truly never know whose forever family might be watching. 🙏🐾 To meet our available pets, visit our website through the link in our bio or come see us at 2070 Griffin Road in Fort Lauderdale. We open daily at 11 a.m. ❤️ #adopted #goinghome #humanebroward #dogrescue #floridapanthers @Florida panthers ♬ original sound - Humane Society Broward County
Another repeatable format she follows is to start a video with a shot of a sign on a cage or kennel door with an eye-catching title (“Forgotten feline,” “368 days,” “My best friend passed away”) and a few lines of text describing the adoptable pet before panning the camera to the animal inside their enclosure.
Whatever the format or topic, Jaworski says, every video should adhere to one fundamental rule: “Capturing people’s attention in the first two to three seconds is key.”
How do you get started or get more followers?
If you’re not already on TikTok, it’s easier than it sounds. Step one: Create an account.
“No one should be intimidated,” Jaworski says. “Everyone should just start. You have to start somewhere.”
Still, a little preparation will go a long way. Before you start posting, create a calendar of content. Jaworski says getting at least two weeks of content ready to go can make life easier and help your account not feel stagnant off the bat. Make the videos, write the captions and get them ready ahead of time. (You can save videos as drafts within the app before you post them.)
When you start posting, invite comments with each video and reply to comments that you get. This can be the most time-consuming and labor-intensive part, Pechin says, especially if your account gets popular. “But that is single-handedly what will help you grow more. People don’t want to communicate with a mute account. They want to hear you.”
Jaworski says it’s also important to comment on other organizations’ accounts. It makes your brand feel more human and makes your own account more visible. Scroll through other shelters’ feeds, heart their videos and add comments, especially to viral videos. The comments can be quick and simple (“how sweet is this!”).
Bear B just might be the man you need! 💝 Bear is your typical leading man: he’s sweet, social, loves kids, and is just looking for someone to complete him. He wouldn’t mind having a canine roommate, but he’s never lived with cats, so slow introductions are a must. Come meet Bear B today, and get the man you need! ❤️🐾
Here are more tips to keep in mind:
- Be consistent. Jaworski suggests aiming for three to five posts a week, but it’s OK to skip a few days if you’re low on content. Just “never miss a week,” she says.
- Hop on trends early. “If you’re late to the trend, no one cares,” Bradley says, adding that the best way to find trends is to just scroll through the app. “You have to scroll to understand what’s out there.”
- Music matters. “Videos will go viral based on one song,” Jaworski says. One Valentine’s Day TikTok created by Bradley’s team used an Olivia Dean song with the lyric “come be the man I need” and the caption “Bear B might just be the man you need!” (Just remember that as a business account, you’re limited to TikTok’s commercial music library, your own original music or songs you’ve been granted explicit permission to use. You can also subscribe to an external platform such as Epidemic Sound to expand your music choices.)
- Keep it simple. You can shoot video on a cell phone and use the first or second take. “Videos don’t have to be complicated,” Jaworski says. “You can make a mistake. It doesn’t have to be polished. The videos that do the best in our feed took the least amount of work.”
- Think about human faces, too. Selfie-style videos often dominate on TikTok, so long as the person is charismatic, Jaworski says; featuring the same person repeatedly makes them a familiar and trusted figure. You can pay influencers if you have a budget, or use your own staff or volunteers.
- Test out different features. Beyond short videos, TikTok also supports some Instagram-inspired features, such as carousels of images and stories, as well as livestreams. Pechin does a 30-minute livestream segment weekly with one of her shelter directors, who brings out an animal and shows them live, “with no bells and whistles; it just allows people to feel they’re actually there with you.”
- Track what’s working and adjust. “If you’re seeing a post popping off, use that knowledge to create content that works,” Jaworski says. “If you’re posting something and it’s not hitting your audience, maybe take a step back. It might not be the best fit for TikTok.”
- Manage your responses. To keep up with the hundreds of TikTok direct messages her shelter receives every day, Pechin set up an auto reply with answers to common questions (where the shelter is located; how to adopt), and with the shelter’s Facebook and Instagram links. The Meta business app makes it easier to track and reply to DMs via those apps, she says.
- Show up in searches. “SEO plays more of a role in TikTok than you’d think,” says Francesca Langan Palmacci, web marketing manager at Humane World for Animals. Palmacci recommends saying keywords out loud in your TikTok video (instead of just including them in the caption) and adding some target keywords to the overlay text, displayed in the first three to five seconds of your video. “This helps the algorithm understand exactly what your video is about,” she says, “increasing the chances of it being shown to the right audiences.”
Be patient and keep posting
Perhaps the most important advice for TikTok newbies, Pechin says, is to not get discouraged if your account isn’t getting the attention you hoped for.
It took about three years for the Broward County shelter’s TikTok account to take off. Then a single video went viral, with more than 12 million views.
“That really catapulted us into this crazy growth,” she says.
Today, the shelter has more than 1.4 million TikTok followers, and the number continues to grow. Its most popular TikTok video to date has reached more than 75 million views.
“We’re getting people from all over the world who are learning how animals can be cared for in the shelter world,” Pechin says.
She encourages shelters and rescues that are new to the app to keep trying, remember why you’re doing all of this, and give yourself some grace with how it goes.
“We are not doing this to sell a hand cream and become a viral sensation and an influencer,” she says. “As soon as we start to let the numbers and the metrics deter us from showing up [in the TikTok space], the only disservice we’re doing is to these pets, who have no voice. We are their voice.”
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