By: Rahul Adhikari
February 16 2023
False: The video shows a man helping a dog find her puppies in the rubble after the Turkey earthquake.
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
The viral video was captured in Rajasthan in 2019 when an NGO rescued puppies from a collapsed house and has been misattributed to the earthquake.
Claim ID 8d1eb74c
Context
A series of earthquakes left more than 35,000 dead in Turkey and over 5,000 in Syria, according to Reuters. Rescue operations are still underway. Following the quakes, several videos and photos have surfaced online, attributed to the recent incident.
One video on Facebook showed a man rescuing puppies. The claim stated that the man helped a dog find its puppies in the rubble after the Turkey earthquake. The text on the video says that the puppies were buried under debris after the quake, and the dog believed they were still alive. The video further claimed that the dog dug through the rubble until a man finally helped to rescue the two puppies. The caption included the hashtag "TurkeyEarthquake," implying it is from Turkey. The viral clip has received over 1000 likes and 248 shares.
In Fact
The t-shirt of the man in the video reads "AnimalAid Unlimited." Further research revealed that Animal Aid Unlimited is a Udaipur-based NGO in India's Rajasthan that rescues and helps street animals.
We found that the NGO had shared an extended version of the viral video on their Facebook page and YouTube channel on August 8, 2019. According to the text overlaid on the video, the NGO was informed that a mother dog was frantically crying after her puppies got trapped under the rubble of a house that collapsed due to heavy rainfall. The video's caption also reiterated that the incident showed an animal rescue after a house collapsed due to rain. The video did not mention anything about earthquakes.
Logically reached out to Animal Aid Unlimited for clarification on the video. Rashmi Soni, a member of the NGO, refuted the claim and said, "The video is not related to the recent Turkey earthquakes. The incident happened in Udaipur, Rajasthan, in 2019. The puppies were trapped under a collapsed house near Alankar Jewellers in the Moti Chohatta area. We rescued them after locals informed us."
The Verdict
A 2019 video of puppies being rescued after a house collapsed in Rajasthan has been falsely connected to the earthquake in Turkey. Therefore, we have marked this as false.