Anti-dog flyer resurfaces online, attracts hateful rhetoric toward Canadian Muslims

"Residents of Vancouver, Canada, have spotted several signs around the city asking people to keep their dogs away, as dogs are considered filthy and 'haram' in Islam," reads the caption of a July 13, 2025 X photo. "Canadians, expected to give UP all you are to become what they fled from."

The attached image shows a leaflet asking people to "be courteous to your Muslim neighbours" by keeping dogs on a leash and away from people practicing Islam supposedly due to religious convictions about the animals.

Claims about the picture also appeared in online articles and on TikTok and Facebook where it was widely viewed in a post by American conservative commentator David J Harris Jr, who has previously spread misinformation.

Comments on some of the posts disparagingly implied owners could bring their dogs wherever they liked and that Muslims needed to assimilate to Canada.

Image

Screenshot of an X post taken July 22, 2025

Other recent posts shared the image but claimed the flyer was seen in the United Kingdom.

AFP previously fact-checked claims in Canada misrepresenting Muslims' beliefs and actions.

As the country's once long-standing immigration consensus has broken down, misleading claims frequently circulate on newcomers in general.

The recent posts about supposed anti-dog posters are similarly missing context. 

A reverse image search reveals images of the flyers have been online since 2017.

That year, local media reported on the appearance of the signs at an off-leash park in the town of Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, outside of Vancouver.

No one ever came forward to claim responsibility for the action, but the City of Pitt Meadows and the non-profit Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which were advertised as alleged sponsors of the campaign on the flyer both stated they do not endorse the leaflets' message.

The image frequently reappears online and, in an August 2024 statement (archived here), Pitt Meadows officials said whoever created the sign was not authorized to use the city's logo and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had been aware of the incident since 2017.

"Pitt Meadows is a welcoming multi-cultural community and this post does not represent the City or its community members," the statement says.

"Like other municipalities, the City of Pitt Meadows has a bylaw that asks dog owners to keep their pets on a leash, except in designated off-leash areas," it adds.

The city also noted no physical signs have been found in Pitt Meadows since 2017.

AFP reached out to CAIR for comment about the posters and did not receive a response but the non-profit previously told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation it did not participate in any sort of flyer campaign, while noting that Islam does not explicitly prohibit dog ownership.

CAIR also speculated on whether the appearance of the leaflets was an Islamophobic trolling campaign, while disinformation researchers cited evidence that a similar 2016 anti-dog flyer incident targeting the Muslim community in Manchester England may have been hatched on 4chan (archived here).

France24 reported on the resurgence of the Canadian sign in April 2025, along with several similar hoaxes in the United Kingdom, which were also recently covered by British fact-checking organization FullFact.

In February, British organization Tell MAMA reported the highest-ever number of incidents of anti-Muslim hate in the United Kingdom, while Canadian groups have also raised alarm about instances of Islamophobia (archived here). Statistics Canada recorded a steady rise in police-reported hate crimes targeting Muslims between 2020 and 2024, behind the number and increase of anti-Semitic incidents (archived here).

Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation in Canada here.