The World Economic Forum (WEF) has not publicly called for “the killing of millions of domestic cats and dogs to fight climate change,” contrary to what an English-language article claims. Fake news was shared thousands of times online in December. AFP found no trace of such an initiative, and a World Economic Forum spokesperson denied the claim. The fake article also cites Bloomberg and CNN, claiming that these papers also promoted the supposed “initiative” of the World Economic Forum, but this is also not true.
says a Hungarian Facebook postwhich was published on NewsPunch on December 9, 20222 Article in English Mark it as a source. The false claim has been shared hundreds of times since mid-December in French on FacebookAnd the Also in English It has exceeded thousands of posts.
Article contains false statement Klaus Schwabillustrated by the image of the founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The World Economic Forum is an international non-governmental organization that organizes a meeting of political leaders, business leaders and other global economic actors every year in Davos, Switzerland.
Klaus Schwab, founder and CEO of the organization Frequent target of false claims.
In recent years, the World Economic Forum has published many articles and videos about the carbon footprint of dog and cat food. However, AFP found no trace of any public initiative or statement encouraging pet owners to “kill” their pets. In addition, a spokesperson for the World Economic Forum denied the allegations to AFP.
In the articles quoted by NewsPunch, one cannot read that anyone is asking farmers to kill their animals.
A Facebook post that contains a fake article as well as the article itself. Screenshots taken December 21, 2022.
The World Economic Forum has not publicly called for the killing of millions of pets
NewsPunch is a site called “YourNewswire”. new name AFP has already written fact checks on the articles on the last page in French, for example here And the here.
“The World Economic Forum is now calling for the slaughter of millions of cats and dogs worldwide to reduce the ‘carbon footprint’ of eating meat,” the article says.
According to NewsPunch, despite the above alleged criticisms, “The World Economic Forum maintains that this action is necessary because they believe reducing the number of pets in the world will help reduce global warming and other environmental problems caused by overpopulation.”
However, there is no trace of Google calling the World Economic Forum for the slaughter of millions of cats and dogs, or animal protection groups’ reaction to said ad.
In the article, there is a channel called “Voice of the People” affiliated with NewsPunch your video They can also be found in which similar statements are made. A preview image of the video shows a purported tweet from the World Economic Forum’s Twitter account with the text: “Ending pet ownership will reduce dangerous carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.”
on the WEF Twitter account However, no such function was found. On the Internet archive called the Wayback Machine, verified by AFP on the day the NewsPunch article and People Voice video were published, on December 9thor that previous days Did they post information about killing small animals on the World Economic Forum’s Twitter page, but nothing similar can be found in the archived content.
on the WEF Facebook account And you can’t find a message to “kill” pets. In October 2021, the World Economic Forum published a dossier videoPets have a positive effect on the mental health of their owners. In August 2019, the WEF Facebook account has a Another video Also published, citing experts and companies working to provide farmers with insect-based pet foods instead of highly contaminated meat.
The most recent articles on the environmental impact of pets were published on the World Economic Forum website in 2017, 2019, and 2020. According to the WEF, as more and more people become aware of the impact of meat production on the climate, companies and farmers may review the diets of dogs and cats, and reduce portions Or, for example, in some cases the search for vegetarian alternatives to some dishes.
None of the mentioned writings mentioned the possibility of “destruction” of animals.
On December 13, 2022, a World Economic Forum spokesperson confirmed to AFP that this information was “false”. They said that “the World Economic Forum has never made such a statement” and did not initiate any such action.
The articles in the scam do not mention killing animals, nor do they mention the World Economic Forum
The NewsPunch article also claims that the WEF “directed” the media to “start spreading” the animal killing narrative. The article refers to the Bloomberg and CNN article, which you are supposed to read on this topic.
Bloomberg article, mentioned in the People Voice video about 1 minute 19 seconds, was released in March 2022. The article – available only to subscribers, but AFP had the opportunity to read it in full – is not about climate change, but about inflation in the United States. In a short paragraph, the author discusses the cost of medical care for pets, and specifically notes that “for ethical reasons, researchers do not recommend chemotherapy for pets, which can cost up to $10,000” and has serious side effects, as well as the risk that the animal dies. The rest of his life is in pain.
The second articlepublished by the American network CNN in September 2022: the article is in 2017 to study Details of the carbon footprint generated during the production of cat and dog food.
CNN writes that “pets have a measurable positive impact on our physical health and mental well-being,” and offers advice for those who want to reduce the impact of pet ownership on the climate: “As a general rule, senior pets have a greater climate impact on puppies, because Mainly because they need more food, so it’s worth considering smaller or other breeds if you want to reduce your impact on the planet.”
None of the articles cite the World Economic Forum, and no one advises ranchers to “euthanize” their animals.
“Don’t Panic! Saying Goodbye to Our Best Friends Isn’t the Answer,” CNN wrote in its post.
By the way, NewsPunch is the one ancient writing Recycling, published November 26, 2022, in which the author claims that “climate activists are now calling for the slaughter of millions of dogs worldwide to reduce ‘carbon dioxide emissions’ from eating meat” – a claim very similar to AFP-verified claims above, as well as links to the aforementioned CNN article.
The recent false claim has been refuted by several fact-checking websites, such as USA Today And that News agencyand the PolitiFact, who spoke to several animal welfare organizations as well as the author of the study cited by CNN that called the claims “ridiculous.”
Cover photo: Giphy.com, @konczakowski
