Skip to main content

False claim that people in dog costumes were part of 'trans-species' protest | Fact check

Joedy McCreary   Paste BN

The claim: People identifying as dogs protested for 'trans species' rights

A Sept. 24 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a video of people dressed as dogs howling outside a building, along with an image of a post from X, formerly Twitter.

“Hundreds of people, who identify as DOGS, are currently protesting on the streets of Germany in support of ‘trans species rights,’” reads the X post. "Welcome to 2023."

The Instagram post received more than 20,000 likes in two weeks. A similar version of the post received more than 80,000 likes.

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks

Our rating: False

There was no such protest. The claim misrepresents video from a fetish subculture festival that shows people role-playing as dogs, not claiming to identify as animals.

Video shows ‘puppy walk,’ not trans-species protest

The 15-second Instagram video pans to show dozens of people barking and howling in dog costumes on a sidewalk outside the Bahnhof Potsdamer Platz train station in Berlin.

There was no protest, and the event had nothing to do with trans-species rights. The video taken during the Folsom Europe fetish festival in September shows the “puppy walk," festival spokesperson Daniel Ruester told Paste BN. That particular event brought together people who enjoy a role-playing activity in which at least one person acts like a dog.

“It’s a gathering of people – of all genders – that are connected through their fetish,” Ruester said.

Fact check: Photos from 2016 show adult who identified as a cat, not public school student

A photo posted Sept. 8 on the event’s Facebook page shows the same scene and many of the same people as the Instagram video. Both show one of the attendees holding a pole with three flags. About 400 people attended, according to the photo’s caption.

Additionally, there is no credible evidence that a movement exists to legitimize the rights of people to identify as animals. Instead, the term "trans-species rights" generally refers to the welfare and ethical treatment of animals. Supporters call it prejudiced to prioritize human interests over those of animals and say capitalism oppresses animals by treating them as commodities, according to reports by Global Policy and research from York University.

Paste BN has previously debunked other falsehoods about people identifying as animals, including claims that a Michigan public school provided litter boxes for students identifying as cats and that a school district in Wisconsin has a “furry protocol.”

The social media user who wrote the post on X referred Paste BN to an article in a tabloid that makes a similar claim but does not provide credible evidence to support it.

Paste BN reached out to the social media user who shared the video but did not immediately receive a response.

The Associated Press and PolitiFact also debunked the claim.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

Facebook Twitter Email