Evidence lacking that cats eaten as COVID-19 cure

Cats and dogs have long been a controversial part of the cuisine for some in Vietnam.

But a new claim circulating online says that people there are eating black cats as a treatment for COVID-19.

Tabloid news sites including the Toronto Sun, the New York Post, the U.S. Sun and Vietnam Insider published stories saying black cats are being "collected, killed and their bodies ground up as a supposed coronavirus treatment."

Each of the stories in some way attributed its information to the South West News Service, which describes itself as a "UK- and US-based news and media content agency with a proud 40-year history."

These stories and other posts with the same claim were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

With fewer than 300 reported cases and zero deaths, Vietnam has been highlighted for its response to COVID-19, which included strict quarantining and intensive testing. Much of the country has reopened, with children returning to school May 4.

While Vietnam has grappled with real issues related to animal welfare, experts we spoke to say they haven’t found widespread evidence that black cats are being killed and turned into a paste to treat COVID-19.

The news service that generated the story said it has removed the article from circulation amid concerns about its credibility.

Here’s what we know.

On April 17, The Sun, a tabloid in the United Kingdom and Ireland, published a story that reported on an investigation by an animal rights group called Four Paws. According to the story, the group said it examined dining app data and found that dog and cat meat sales were surging through dining app delivery services in Cambodia and Vietnam. The story surmised that "doctors in the region are encouraging many to eat dog and cat meat, claiming its properties help fight off viruses."

A week later, on April 23 and 24, stories credited to the South West News Service were published elsewhere that had a similar storyline, but took the claim further to suggest black cats are being singled out, turned into paste and consumed as medicine. 

Pictures credited to South West News Service accompanied some versions of the online stories. But the captions were vague and the images hard to verify. They included, for example, a photo of a baby drinking from a bottle that appears to contain a black substance. "This distressing image shows a baby reportedly being fed the black cat concoction," the caption said.

The stories’ only source appeared to be the head of another charity, No to Dog Meat, based in London. We reached out to that group for evidence. They sent us to their YouTube account which includes four videos uploaded in April and May that claim in captions or titles to show cat mistreatment in Vietnam but which included no verifiable information about exactly where or when they were taken.

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Asked about the black cat claim, Cat Besch, founder and director of Hanoi-based Vietnam Animal Aid & Rescue, told PolitiFact she has seen "zero evidence in Vietnam so far that this is true."

Nam Nguyen, an editor in Vietnam with the government-run Vietnam News Agency, told PolitiFact "the rumor has been around these weeks and originated from one post in Thailand social media, but as far as I know, Vietnamese are not so superstitious like other nations in southeast Asia to practice those ancient rites." He said the post has been deleted.

Phuong Tham, director of Human Society International in Vietnam, told PolitiFact that black cats are being killed there "by people with lack of knowledge, believing that black cats' bones can treat asthma in children, while others kill them for superstitious beliefs," but "we have seen no evidence that black cats in Vietnam are being killed for COVID-19 treatment."

Tham and Dr. Todd Pollack, Harvard University medical professor and country director in Hanoi of the Partnership for Health Advancement in Vietnam, said it is significant that they had not seen the claim reported by news organizations in Vietnam.

VN Express, a newspaper in Vietnam, reported that on May 6, police in Nghe An province seized 630 kilograms of dog, cat carcasses and entrails of other animals from a passenger bus. The driver said the meat was being taken to Hanoi for consumption, according to the report. But the report contains no suggestion the meat was being used for treatment of coronavirus.

When we reached out to South West News Service about the source of the information, the agency told PolitiFact that "shortly after publication, we identified a number of issues with this story and pulled it from our service. We received new information which led us to doubt the widespread nature of the claims the charity had made on this issue."

We rate this claim False.