Fact Check: Viral video of dog attack is not from Kalyan but Brazil, it is misleading

During the Zero Hour in Lok Sabha, Garg said that the dog bite incidents are exponentially growing and requested the government to constitute a committee to address the ‘atmosphere of terror’ in the country. He pointed out that 3.05 million people in India have been bitten by dogs which resulted in 286 fatalities due to the canine bites. “Children cannot play in the open. An atmosphere of terror has been created within the city. So it is my request that a committee be formed and the matter be taken up,” the BJP MP told the Parliament. Previous year, 70 dog bites were registered every day and 2 deaths resulting from these bites were reported in Hyderabad city.

Meanwhile, a social media post showing a dog has grabbed the leg of a child at a play area, is being shared with the claim that the incident occurred in Kalyan city of Maharashtra.

Claim in Marathi: सोसायटीमधील भटक्या कुत्र्यांनी लहान मुलाचे अक्षरशः लचके तोडले

(When translated, the post reads, “yesterday’s incident at Arihant society at Khadakpada in Kalyan. Stray dogs in the society literally broke a child's leg.”)

In the viral video, we can see a stray dog is attacking a boy in the play area of the seemingly residential complex. Other kids and a woman try to shoo away the dog but it does not leave the child’s leg.

You can find the viral claim link here and archive link here.

[ Disturbing video: Viewer’s discretion is advised ]

The screenshot of the viral post is available below. 

Fact Check:

During the investigation, the Telugu Post Fact Check found the viral claim to be misleading as this post is not from India but Brazil.

We started our investigation by extracting the keyframes using an InVid tool and later ran these frames through Google Reverse Image Search tool which led us to a social media post shared by ‘True Crime Updates’ on X. The tweet was from November 19, 2024. The tweet reads, “A pair of escaped pit bulls attacked an 11-year-old boy & a 12-year-old girl at a playground in #SãoPaulo, #Brazil.”

It further stated that the injured boy is awaiting surgery while the dogs' owner, Marcos Sibioni, was charged with animal abuse, custody neglect & serious bodily harm.

Taking a cue from this information, we customized our search query and we came across a news report related to the dog attack on a ‘TV REDE BRASIL’ YouTube channel. The video was posted with this title, “DONO DE PITBULLS É INDICIADO PELA POLÍCIA. CÃES ATACARAM CRIANÇAS EM.” (when translated from Portuguese(Brazil) to English, The pitbull owner is indicted by the police. The dogs attacked children in…)

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We found a news article in Portuguese language on itatiaia news website which confirmed that “the owner of the pitbull was indicted” by the Civil Police. It further states that the incident took place in the North Zone of Sao Paulo on November 12, 2024.

A few weeks later, an eight-year-old boy suffered injuries to his face and genitals in a stray dog attack in Kalyan. The victim was identified as Arthav Shrinivas and a resident of Beturkar Pada area in Kalyan West. On December 8, 2024, Arthav was attacked by a stray dog while he was returning from classes. He was briefly admitted to a KDMC-run Rukaminibai Hospital in the city.

In light of our investigation and media reports, the viral video of the dog attack is not from Kalyan, Maharashtra but Sao Paulo city in Brazil. Hence, the claim made in the viral social media post is misleading.