Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
As Pakistan grapples with its worst economic crisis in history, a disturbing video showing a news reporter “uncovering” an illegal slaughterhouse in Karachi selling dog and donkey meat to customers has grabbed the attention of social media users. Those who shared the clip claimed that the Pakistani residents are now resorting to slaughtering dogs and donkeys for meat amid skyrocketing inflation. Newschecker found the footage to be old and unrelated to the recent economic struggles of Pakistan.
Note: The video contains disturbing visuals of animal cruelty and has been not embedded in this article.
Several Twitter users shared the video with the caption, “Pakistan, dying of hunger, are now eating donkey & dog meat. Dogs & donkeys are being slaughtered for meat.. (sic)”
Archived versions of such tweets can be seen here, here, here and here.
The footage is also doing the rounds on Facebook claiming to show Pakistani residents slaughtering dogs and donkeys for meat as economic condition in the country worsens.
Links to such posts can be found here, here, here and here.
Fact Check/Verification
We scanned through the comments and responses of social media users who interacted with posts carrying the viral footage, and noticed that multiple users pointed out that the footage is old. One Twitter user @PatriotIndian16 commented that the video “may be 8 years old.”
Taking a clue, we looked up keywords “Pakistan,” “dog,” “donkey” & “meat” on Facebook, while setting the time period of search to2015. This led us to a post by @Wajahat79, dated March 11, 2015.
Carrying a longer version of the viral footage, the post stated, “In Pakistan…. in poor village selling donkey and dog meat!!! (sic)”
We looked further and found that the footage was also shared on Facebook by user @hassanhamedanbarkas.hassanhamedanbarkas in a post dated March 31, 2014.
On analysing the longer version of the video, we spotted some text written on the top left and bottom in the first few frames. Our Urdu team confirmed that the text in the top read “Khufia,” while the chyron said “Sana Faisal.”
Notably, Sana Faisal is a Pakistani reporter who hosted a show “Khufia” on Abb Takk new channel.
Abb Takk joined YouTube only in 2016, and hence we were not able to find the viral footage on its official channel. However, we looked up through the Khufia programme’s videos posted and shared by the news channel on its Facebook page in 2014. This led us to a post by Khufia that Abb Takk had shared on April 9, 2014, carrying snippets from the viral video.
On further scrolling through the Khufia’s page, we found that the extended version of the viral video was originally posted on April 14, 2014.
Conclusion
A 2014 footage of a “sting operation” to uncover a slaughterhouse in Karachi is being falsely shared to show Pakistani residents slaughtering dogs and donkeys for meat amid the current economic crisis.
Result: False
Sources
Facebook Post By @Wajahat79, Dated March 11, 2015
Facebook Post By @hassanhamedanbarkas.hassanhamedanbarkas, Dated March 31, 2014
Facebook Post By Khufia, Dated April 14, 2014
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Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
