image is of a shocking nature and has been blurred



This photo and accompanying text is circulating virally across the Internet. The message claims that Ukraine is burning thousands of homeless cats and dogs alive in preparation for the upcoming Euro 2012 Football competition.

The message is based very much on truth, albeit a very condensed, skewed version of it. However many aspects of the message are unverified and probably false or misleading.
Firstly it should be pointed out that the image of the dog is almost certainly nothing to do with the story in the message since we have seen evidence of the image being circulated via forums as far back as 2007 attached to various unrelated animal cruelty stories from Bulgaria to the USA, though we cannot verify exactly where the photo originated.

As for the assertion that the Ukraine are killing cats and dogs in preparation for the Euro 2012 competition this is actually true and has already drawn lots of controversy, especially from animal rights groups such as PETA who have publically urged the Ukrainian authorities to cease the inhumane methods of killing homeless cats and dogs, which has included poisoning, shooting, hanging and – according to globalanimal.org – often burning using a mobile crematorium, though it should be noted that reports of animals actually being burnt whilst alive are unsubstantiated.

The slaughtering has been widely reported in the press and many celebrities and sports people have already condemned the Ukraine for the action, including many of the German football team and actress Pamela Anderson.

The message also states that the president has signed a contract specifically expressing that the authorities should capture and burn homeless cats and dogs alive. The current president of the Ukraine is Viktor Yanukovych. We have yet found no evidence to support the assertion that President Yanukovych has signed any "contract" specifically stating that homeless animals should be burnt alive. The Ukraine does have laws concerning animal cruelty and burning animals alive would certainly be in violation of those laws, so it is unlikely that the President would openly support such actions, let alone signing an initiative enforcing it.

However it is clear that such inhumane actions are indeed taking place across the Ukraine, but the message and picture above are both misleading and not entirely accurate and we do not recommend circulating them.



The Internet, and social networking sites like Facebook, are perfect platforms for spreading untruths, misinformation, rumor and propaganda. Thousands of inaccurate, exaggerated, deceptive or just plain false messages are circulated every single day.

For the anti-scam community to successfully tackle this plethora of false rumours, it is important that anyone who uses the Internet be able to identify false rumours and fully understands the possible consequences of spreading false information.

We have a two part blog post that helps provide this information. Part 1 deals with how to spot and debunk Internet rumours and Part 2 deals with the reasons why you should never circulate false information.

Additionally if you have fallen for this rumour or have Facebook friends that have, you can join our growing Facebook page here.