No, these photos do not show a human-like creature born to a pig

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on June 14, 2019 at 10:30
  • 2 min read
  • By AFP Philippines
A photo collage has been shared thousands of times in multiple posts on Facebook pages in the Philippines alongside a claim that a creature which “looked like a human being” was born to a pig. The claim is false; the images show a silicone sculpture made by an Italian artist.

The photo collage was published in this post on June 9, 2019, where it has been shared 25,000 times.

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:

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Screenshot of Facebook post

The Tagalog language post translates to English as: “A pig gave birth to what looked like a human being.. so that you will not experience bad luck, share this to remove the curse. Amen”.

The same photos were shared with a similar claim on Facebook here, here and here.

The claim is false; the photos show a silicone sculpture made by an Italian artist.

Reverse image searches and keyword searches on Google found the same photos published here on the Facebook page of artist Laira Maganuco.

The post is embedded below:

Maganuco describes the creature in the photos as “baby hibrid pig piece unique mixed silicones”.

Below is a comparison of the photos in the misleading post (L) with the photos in Maganuco’s Facebook post (R):

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Screenshot of images
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Screenshot of images
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Screenshot of images

Two of the photos in the misleading post also appear on Maganuco’s Instagram page here.

Further keyword searches found this website for an art competition, which listed Maganuco’s “hybrid pig piece” as an entry. 

The search also found this online store which sells Maganuco’s hybrid pig sculpture. 

The pig sculpture appears on Maganuco’s official website here

Below is a screenshot of the sculpture:

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Screenshot of website

AFP Kenya also debunked a similar claim about the same photos here and AFP Pakistan has debunked claims about another of Maganuco's artworks here.

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