This video shows a flock of sheep on a street in Spain

This article is more than one year old.
Published on June 23, 2020 at 05:45
2 min read
By AFP Thailand

A video of a flock of sheep walking along a road has been viewed thousands of times in multiple posts on Facebook and YouTube alongside claims that the footage shows 30,000 sheep that were gifted to China by Mongolia. The claim is false; the video shows a flock of sheep in the Spainish city of Huesca.

The two-minute 37-second video was published here on Facebook on June 7, 2020. It has been viewed more than 800 times.

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post

The post’s Thai-language caption translates to English as: “The new Mongolian president visited China two months ago and promised to send 30,000 herds of sheep to China. Recently, those sheep were sent to China on foot. This scene is exciting and environmentally friendly!”

During a state visit to Beijing on February 27, 2020, Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga vowed to donate 30,000 sheep to support China’s fight against COVID-19.

Mongolia’s donation was reported here by Montsame, Mongolia’s national news agency, and here by China’s state-run broadcaster China Global Television Network.

The video was also shared here, here, here and here on Facebook and here on YouTube alongside similar claims.

The claim is false.

A reverse image search on Google using video keyframes extracted with InVID-WeVerify, a digital verification tool, found an identical video published here on the Facebook page of Polish news website Korso Sanockie on May 6, 2020.

The post’s Polish-language caption translates to English as: “Somewhere in Spain. And where are they rushing in the middle of the city?”

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading posts (L) and a frame in the Korso Sanockie clip (R):

Screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading posts (L) and a frame in the Korso Sanockie clip (R):

A subsequent keyword search found this May 5, 2020 report published by Spanish newspaper Diario del AltoAragón. The report is headlined “Sheep take some streets in Huesca.”

Part of the report reads: “On Saturday, a large flock of sheep, disobeying the distance measures required by the [coronavirus] regulations, and without a mask or other security measures. strolled through various streets of the capital of Huesca.”

The street where the incident occurred can be seen here on Google Street View.

AFP debunked a similar claim about Mongolia's offer to donate 30,000 sheep to China here.

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