Fact check: Viral video of dog rescuing puppies is from 2019, not Turkey earthquake

Eleanor McCrary, USA TODAY
·2 min read
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The claim: Video shows dog rescuing puppies after Turkey earthquake

A Feb. 9 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) shows a dog and a person digging through debris to rescue trapped puppies.

"The dog's child was buried under the ruins after the earthquake," reads on-screen text in the video.

The Instagram post's caption lists several hashtags, including "#turkey" and "#helptoturkey."

The video was liked more than 2,000 times in a day. It was originally posted to TikTok where it received over 3 million likes in three days. The video also circulated on Twitter and Facebook.

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Our rating: False

This video is not from the Feb. 6 earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. It shows footage filmed in India in 2019.

Footage is from 2019 YouTube video

Powerful earthquakes caused mass destruction in Syria and Turkey on Feb. 6 and the death toll from the disaster has since risen to over 21,000, USA TODAY reported.

But this video is not from that catastrophe. It has circulated online since 2019.

The video was originally shared on YouTube in August 2019 by Animal Aid Unlimited, an organization in Udaipur, India. Its caption states the puppies were trapped under rubble after a house collapsed from rainfall, not an earthquake.

In the Instagram video, the footage is cropped and the orientation is flipped.

Fact check: Video of building collapse is from Florida in 2021, not recent earthquake in Turkey

USA TODAY has debunked several videos and images falsely associated with the Feb. 6 Turkey-Syria earthquakes, including false claims that a video shows a tsunami during the earthquake and that a stock image of a dog rescuing people was from the natural disaster.

USA TODAY reached out to social media users who shared the post for comment.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Viral video of dog is from 2019, not Turkey earthquake