The huge amount of information shared on Facebook can be a creepy and sometimes-privacy-invasive feature of the site. However, it can also have positive benefits, like when concerned users reported two cases of animal cruelty to authorities this week based on Facebook posts.

In the first case, a North Carolina woman was charged with animal cruelty after posting a picture of her dog with it’s mouth duct-taped shut. The woman said she immediately began receiving harassing comments after the posts and quickly removed the pictures, but it was too late. She was reported to authorities and charged.

In the second, even more distressing incident, an Auroro, Colorado, woman wrote a message threatening the life of a dog in her care. “$50 bucks and you can have this damn pitt (sic). imma keep shooting her with this tazer and bb gun till she’s gone f*#k this dog,” she wrote. Like in the first arrest, authorities visited her house to investigate and found a dog in severe distress.

“A small dog, located in a small crate, the dog was all by itself, no type food or water. There was an awful smell,” one of the police said. “The animal had been peeing in the crate and was soaked in the urine.”

While law enforcement Facebook monitoring can feel like Big Brother, there’s no doubt that it can also have big (and in this case, dog-saving) benefits.