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Viral image
Viral image
stated on February 8, 2023 an Instagram post:

A video shows a dog trying to reach her puppies after the Turkey-Syria earthquake.

False
By Ciara O'Rourke
February 10, 2023

Puppy rescue filmed in India in 2019, not in Turkey or Syria after the recent earthquake

If your time is short

  • This footage was filmed in India in 2019 after rain caused a house to collapse, trapping a dog’s puppies in the rubble. 
 
See the sources for this fact-check

The recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria has wrought enormous suffering, a soaring death toll and some good news in its wake, such as the Feb. 10 rescue of a 10-day-old baby and his mother who were trapped in the ruins of a building. 

But a video of a dog desperately trying to reach her puppies is not new. Still, some social media posts have suggested that it’s more footage from the quake’s aftermath. 

“The dog’s child was buried under the ruins after the earthquake,” reads the text of a video shared on Instagram on Feb. 8. The video shows a dog clawing at rubble with the help of a man who eventually pulls puppies from under the rocks.

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

Animal Aid Unlimited, an animal rescue center, hospital and sanctuary in India, posted the footage on its verified Facebook account in August 2019, writing that the dog was trying to “free her buried babies who were trapped after a house collapsed in the rain.” The man in the clip can be seen wearing an Animal Aid Unlimited shirt. There’s no mention of an earthquake. 

We rate claims that this clip was filmed after the Turkey-Syria earthquake False.

 
Our Sources

Instagram post, Feb. 8, 2023

Animal Aid Unlimited Facebook post, Aug. 28, 2019

Reuters, Children plucked from ruins days after earthquake, but death tolls tops 22,000, Feb. 10, 2023

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