No, this photo doesn’t show a raid on a dog-fighting ring in South Africa’s Port Elizabeth — it was taken in Tsakane
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on May 3, 2019 at 17:26
- 2 min read
- By AFP South Africa, Tendai DUBE
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The Facebook post from April 22, 2018, which we’ve archived here, has been shared over 2,000 times and the caption reads: “PORT ELIZABETH DOG FIGHTING RING BUST All animals taken to safety. Perps to appear in court soon.”
Comments on the misleading post led AFP to believe the images were old and a Google reverse image search confirmed the events happened in another South African township.
In a post shared more than 9,200 times on Facebook, published a few days before the post linking the raid to Port Elizabeth, the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) posted six images with a caption explaining how after five years, four men were found guilty of participating in the criminal activity of organised dog fighting and sentenced to two years in prison. The raid itself took place in Tsakane in 2013, the post confirmed.
Local reports further corroborated that the raid took place in Tsakane and not Port Elizabeth. However, a April 19, 2018 article does refer to a dog fighting incident in Port Elizabeth where police failed to take action.
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