Viral story of 7 dogs in China escaping is fake, sort of

1 week ago 15

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Snippets of the viral video of seven dogs on a Chinese highway

@fengwei via Douyin

MANILA, Philippines — The internet has been enamored this week with a viral story about a group of dogs in China traveling 17 kilometers on foot, or rather on paw, supposedly after escaping a slaughterhouse.

As heartwarming as the parallels to the Disney film "Homeward Bound" may seem, much of the story's details were fabricated and later amplified by artificial intelligence.

Most people likely came across the video of seven dogs, including a golden retriever, a German shepherd and a corgi, trotting along a highway as a man drove by in China's Jilin province.

The man speculated that the dogs may have escaped from somewhere, though he later said he had not actually witnessed such an incident.

But that was enough for the video to spread on social media, first in China and then across the rest of the world, as theories quickly took off.

How the story spread

Many online were charmed by the corgi, which appeared to be leading the unusual pack, while others claimed the German shepherd looked injured and that the other dogs were protecting it.

Some also suggested the dogs were fleeing a meat factory, drawing on the stereotype that Chinese people eat dogs.

It did not take long for people to generate artificial intelligence-made images of the dogs as characters in "Homeward Bound"-style movie posters, complete with fake trailers and imagined reunion scenes with their owners.

What state media reported

According to state media, however, the dogs on the highway lived in a nearby village, and their owners said the dogs were drawn to the German shepherd because it was in heat.

State media also reported that dogs in the village were allowed to roam freely and that it was not uncommon for them to disappear while one was in heat.

All the dogs have since returned to the three households they belong to, with the German shepherd being kept on a leash for the time being.

In fact, while the original video was uploaded on March 15, the dogs had already returned home by March 19. The story only went viral this week as the month came to a close.

Even if the tale turned out to be overstated, at least "Homeward Bound" remains, in all its forms: the book, the original film adaptation, the remake and the remake's sequel.

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