Fact Check: Delhi stray dogs locked in shelter after court order? No, video is from Iraq
A video has been circulating online, claiming it shows many stray dogs locked up in a Delhi shelter after the Supreme Court’s order.
By Md Mahfooz Alam
Claim:The video shows dogs locked up in Delhi’s shelter after the Supreme Court’s order.
Fact:The claim is false. The video is from Erbil, Iraq.
Hyderabad: On August 11, the Supreme Court ordered the removal, sterilisation, vaccination and permanent sheltering of all stray dogs in Delhi-NCR within six to eight weeks. However, on August 14, a three-judge bench heard petitions challenging the directive and reserved its order, with the final verdict still pending.
In this context, a video showing hundreds of dogs inside a large walled enclosure is circulating on social media, with the claim that it depicts Delhi’s stray dogs confined in shelters.
A Facebook user shared the video with the caption, “All the dogs of Delhi are being gathered here.”
Taking jibe at those criticising the court’s order, an X user shared the video and wrote, “So, dog lovers, go here and feed them as much as you want, and if you feel like it, take a couple home and keep them instead of your foreign-breed dogs.” (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false, as the video is not from Delhi, but from the city of Erbil in northern Iraq.
In the viral video, we noticed that the location was marked as Iraq.
A reverse image search of the video’s keyframes led us to an Instagram post from March 10, which stated that there are over 3,00,000 stray dogs in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
The post claimed the video was shot at a so-called ‘shelter’ on the outskirts of Erbil, where, reportedly, more than 10,000 dogs have been dumped without adequate food or medical care. Another Instagram account shared a similar video on May 27, 2024, with the location marked as Erbil, Iraq.
A report by Iraqi media outlet Shafaq News, published on December 12, 2023, carried several images of Erbil Shelter for Stray Animals.
According to the report, the Erbil local government announced that nearly 3,000 stray dogs have been collected and moved to a dedicated shelter since October. Governor Omed Khoshnaw said the shelter was modelled after a British project in Afghanistan and provides food and water for the dogs. He noted that dog attacks in Erbil have dropped by 30 per cent since the campaign began, with around 80 dogs collected daily.
An Iraqi Facebook page, Soran Media, posted a similar video on November 18, 2023. The post stated that the video depicts a stray dog shelter in Erbil.
We compared the visuals of the viral video with clips citing Erbil as the location and an image published by Shafaq News and found them to be identical.
Therefore, we conclude that the viral video is from Erbil, Iraq. The claim is false.
