So were there 2.5 tons of frozen dogs in Mykolaiv or not?

Yesterday, the media, anonymous Telegram channels, including pro-Russian ones, as well as Ukrainian politicians spread the information that a truck allegedly transporting 2.5 tons of «frozen dogs» to Odesa was involved in an accident in Mykolaiv. What is wrong with this information?

At 9:00 a.m. on August 29, the publication «Over two tons of frozen dogs was transported by a truck that got into a road accident in the center of Mykolaiv» appeared on the «News-N» website.

The news was also picked up by the national media, in particular Bukvy and UNIAN. Among the local media, this news was published by Prestupnosti.NET.

«The cargo transported by the Renault Master truck, which got into an accident in the center of Mykolaiv on the evening of August 28, turned out to be more than strange: as stated in the invoices, there were 2.5 tons of frozen dog carcasses in the body. This was reported by the correspondent of «Novyny-N», who visited the scene of the incident,» the newspaper wrote. So far, this publication has already received more than 200,000 views.

Two hours later, another piece of news came out: «Where and why were 2.5 tons of frozen dogs taken: Mykolaiv police gave a comment.» In the news itself, there is no comment from the police about the cargo, but it is only reported that the car was taken by a tow truck to Odesa together with the cargo.

Where did the media get the information about 2.5 tons of dog corpses — the journalists never explained.

Next is a screenshot from another site, which simply copied the news, since the original source was then rewritten.

At first, Novyny-N wrote that «frozen dogs» were being transported from Mykolaiv to Odesa under a contract with the Odesa crematorium. It should be noted that in Mykolaiv the communal enterprise has its own crematorium for dead animals. Journalists of the publication referred to the comment of the police. After some time, in a local chat, the editor-in-chief of Novyny-N Iryna Chernyshova reported that the KP «Center for the Protection of Animals» denied the information, so the media updated the news and simply removed it from there.

«It was immediately updated and indicated about the update, the police got a little confused,» Iryna Chernyshova explained, responding to the comment of Oleksandr Mosin, deputy director of the «Animal Protection Center», who stated that the information spread by the media was false.

However, information about the alleged killing of homeless animals in Mykolaiv and attempts to take them to Odesa began to spread massively in various telegram channels and public figures. Anna Kurkurina, an animal rights activist from Mykolaiv, was one of the first. She recorded a video message in which she declared about «2.5 tons of frozen dog corpses» and accused the mayor of Mykolaiv of killing animals. This publication, in particular, was commented on by blogger Ramina Eskhakzai, who called to make reposts and wait for the reaction. This video on Instagram was shared 13 thousand times.

People's deputy Viktoriia Siumar was also among those who spread information about the frozen dogs being taken to Odesa.

«…Sorry for being off top, but this news just makes me feel creepy. In Mykolaiv, luggage was accidentally discovered... two and a half tons of dead dogs... That's at least one and a half hundred animals. The truck simply got into an accident and thus the police saw the «cargo», which was marked in the documents as «biological waste». They wanted to cremate these dogs, i.e. burn them in Odesa... And this is another separate question, did they plan to use the «frozen meat» in some other way?», Viktoriia Siumar wrote on her Facebook page.

In the comments to the publication, Victoriia Siumar attached a screenshot of a post in the Telegram channel «Ukraine Online» (1.1 million subscribers), which, citing journalist of Hlahol, reported that the owners of the van were allegedly citizens of Uzbekistan, who allegedly owned a network of «shaurma places» in Mykolaiv. After some time, the telegram channel edited the post itself, saying that the information turned out to be false.

The authors of the Telegram channel even added photos of the alleged detainees to the publication. A quick Google search for photos led us to a publication by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic dated April 17, 2024. The press release of the Kyrgyz law enforcement officers refers to the illegal scheme of smuggling goods and smuggling people across the border with Uzbekistan. There were published photos of two people whom the Ukrainian Telegram channels called the owners of shawarma stalls in Mykolaiv.

At the same time, taking into account the public resonance that the information about the tons of frozen dogs from Mykolaiv gained, the mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych recorded a video message in which he announced that the information spread by the media was false, and he called the media that spread it «scam websites».

«In Mykolaiv, a car was moving from the Dnipropetrovsk region to Odesa, got into an accident, and the refrigerator contained medical waste and animal carcasses. They were taken to cremation. And right away, some zoo activists began to accuse us that it is the city government that kills animals and transports tons of them in refrigerators in Mykolaiv. This is completely untrue. This is a completely made-up story, pulled by the ears to me, that the mayor is killing animals. The city council or the city of Mykolaiv are not involved in this incident in any way, and they did not pass by. The second question. When will they be responsible for their words when they write and accuse me or the city authorities of such actions? I demand a refutation of this information from Ms. Kurkurina. People of Mykolaiv, be smart. When some information appears on the Internet, even on some Mykolaiv shit sites that do not verify this information, please look at the information elsewhere. I wouldn't have answered this if I hadn't received 20 likes on Instagram, «Sienkevych the animal killer,» Oleksandr Sienkevych said.

After two high-profile news, the Novyny-N website published another article in which, with reference to the driver of the car transporting the cargo, it was reported that medical waste was actually being transported to Odesa for cremation. The driver allegedly told reporters that there were 1,900 kilograms of various medical waste from hospitals in the city of Dnipro in the back. According to the concluded contract, they were transported to Odesa for disposal. Part of the waste is biological in nature and was in a frozen state.

«As for the information about the dogs, the driver assumes that his words were misunderstood. During the registration of the road accident, he asked the policeman to draw up the documents as soon as possible, because «I have frozen waste in my trunk, which, as stated in the documents, will thaw and start to stink.»

In short, there was confusion, which caused an incredible uproar: the fact is that animal carcasses from veterinary clinics are also transported for disposal from all over Ukraine under the label «biological waste» in the documents. That's why they understood biological waste to mean dogs,» writes Novyny-N.

The police of the Mykolaiv region distributed a press release, where it was reported that while processing the traffic accident, the police found out that the driver of the Renault Master car was transporting 339 kilograms of biological materials of dead animals and medical waste.

«According to the documents, the driver transported cargo from the Dnipropetrovsk region to Odesa for further disposal of waste. The recipient of the cargo is a company that provides a range of services in the field of waste management and environmental maintenance for enterprises throughout the country,» the police said in a statement.

At the same time, law enforcement officers opened proceedings under Article 299 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine «Cruel treatment of animals» in order to verify the legality of the transportation and the validity of the provided documentation.

In the comment of the regional representative of IMI in the Mykolaiv region, the police clarified that the criminal case for «Cruel treatment of animals» was opened only based on the fact of publication in the media.

Where does the figure «2.5 tons» come from? It is possible that the journalists simply took the figure from the technical characteristics of this brand of car. Renault Master, in which, according to media reports, 2.5 tons of frozen dogs were transported, has a maximum trailer load capacity of 2.5 tons according to technical specifications.

But according to our information and according to the data officially released by the police regarding the volume of cargo, the car was not even half loaded. This is also confirmed by the photo with the cargo in the trailer of the car, which was received by the journalists of NikVesti.

Thus, in fact, not a single thesis in the mass media about frozen dogs has been confirmed.

How to identify fake news?

A fake is the presentation of facts in a distorted form or the presentation of deliberately false information. It is also a way of manipulating consciousness by providing incomplete information, distorting the context, part of the information in order to push the audience to the actions or thoughts that the manipulator needs.

The Institute of Mass Information identified signs that could indicate a fake:

SOURCES

• Lack of sources of information.
• Anonymous sources.
• Information taken from social networks, from accounts that are not verified.
• Link to suspicious or little-known sources (link to huhurtrt.ru).
• Information from organizations that have been spotted spreading false information.
• Data from sociological companies that were not active in the inter-election period or were seen in cooperation with political forces.
• Unreliable quotes (turning on its head what was actually said / completely made up quotes / incorrect translation of the quote).

EXPERTS

• Representatives of structures that do not exist in reality.
• Experts without specifying the institution they represent.
• Anonymous experts («scientists believe...»).
• Experts who are funded by the interested party and promote its point of view.
• Politically engaged experts.

EMOTIONS

• An opinion or assessment is presented as a fact.
• The headline does not correspond to the news or is overly emotional.
• Emotional winding in the material.
• Appeal to superstitions, conspiracy theories.
• The journalist uses words that evoke positive or negative emotions in the material.
• Labeling, spreading stereotypes.

PRESENTATION OF FACTS

• Sociological data without specifying the sample, customer, geography, error, date.
• One-sided presentation of facts, assessments and comments, generalizations ("all Ukrainians are fascists»).
• Distorted presentation of the news: real facts are mixed with lies.
• Unreliable photos, videos, which are used as confirmation of information.
• Unreliable or distorted translation of a quote or comment from foreign sources.

Kateryna Sereda, representative of IMI in the Mykolaiv region

Writing this blog became possible thanks to the support of the American people, which was provided through the USAID project «Media Program in Ukraine», which is implemented by the international organization Internews. The content of the materials is solely the responsibility of the NGO «Institute of Mass Information» and does not necessarily reflect the point of view of USAID, the US government and Internews.