When social media attention becomes more important than protecting animals.
As much as we may be inclined to criticize social media, it also has its benefits: Among other things, it has never been easier for animal rights activists to spread their important message to as many people as possible. From images of the appalling conditions in battery cages to tips and tricks on how to rescue injured animals. But what happens when positive feedback on social media suddenly becomes more important than animal welfare? When priorities shift and someone who wanted to help animals suddenly does the exact opposite just to get a few likes?
TikToker Jaime Simpson claimed to have discovered and rescued a young tortoise from a dumpster. Shortly afterward, however, evidence emerged that cast doubt on her story. Did the influencer put the animal in the dumpster herself?
Who Is Jaime Simpson?
Jaime Simpson is an American influencer who is active on TikTok and Instagram. On her channels, she talks about living with chronic illnesses, among other things, and posts videos featuring her service dogs, Echo and Everest.
Some of her animal videos have already reached millions of viewers. According to the US magazine People, a clip showing her two dogs climbing onto a refrigerator, for example, received more than 15 million views.
A Tortoise In A Dumpster
In July 2026, Simpson posted a video in which she allegedly discovered a young tortoise in a dumpster behind a pet store. The animal was inside a small plastic container.
Simpson explained that she occasionally searched the dumpster for usable pet supplies. Local pet stores had previously told her that they were not permitted to donate certain products and therefore had to dispose of them. According to Simpson, she intended to pass these items on to animal welfare organizations.
However, she had not expected to find a living tortoise there. In the video, Simpson also expressed disappointment that she had not searched the dumpster more thoroughly for other animals.
Following the alleged rescue, Simpson said she took the animal to a veterinarian specializing in exotic animals. The tortoise was reportedly a young hybrid leopard tortoise.
The animal was said to be healthy, eating and drinking normally, and could potentially live for up to 100 years. Simpson announced that she would keep the tortoise permanently and publicly asked for name suggestions.
At first, the video was shared as an emotional rescue story. Numerous viewers praised Simpson for getting the animal out of the dumpster... but then doubts began to emerge.
Viewers Investigate
Users claimed to have discovered that the dumpster belonged to the Tropical Kingdom pet store in Arizona because, as the internet often reacts in situations like this, businesses facing a public backlash tend to be bombarded with negative reviews.
The store publicly denied throwing away a living tortoise and emphasized that it did not even sell animals of this kind. Users also came across evidence suggesting that a tortoise of the same species had recently been sold by a breeder to someone named Jaime Simpson.
The container shown in the rescue video was also said to resemble the one in which the animal had originally been sold. This led many observers to suspect that Simpson may have purchased the tortoise herself and then placed it in the dumpster for the video before publicly “rescuing” it.
Influencer Denies Staging The Rescue
Jaime Simpson rejected the accusation. In messages published online, she claimed, among other things, that the buyer could have been another person with the same name.
However, many viewers were not convinced by her explanation. The unusual circumstances of coincidentally discovering an almost silent young tortoise inside a dumpster raised further doubts.
Simpson was also criticized because she apparently already had the camera recording when she found the animal. The subsequent removal of the original video further reinforced suspicions among parts of the community that the rescue may not have happened as initially portrayed.
Staged animal rescue videos are not a new phenomenon on social media. Animal welfare organizations have warned for years that animals are sometimes deliberately placed in dangerous situations to create emotional footage.
If the tortoise was indeed placed in the dumpster for the video, the incident would be more than just a fabricated story created for clicks. Putting a young animal inside a sealed plastic container within a potentially hot or contaminated dumpster could seriously endanger its health.
At the same time, videos like these create a fundamental problem: The more successful staged rescues become, the greater the financial incentive may be to endanger additional animals in exchange for reach and advertising revenue.
Ultimately, it should be clear to all of us that social media can make the work of animal rights activists louder, more visible, and therefore more effective. However, it must never become more important than protecting the animals themselves.