The internet loved this story about lost dogs coming home. It’s just a shame it’s fake

A viral video of seven dogs in China spawned a gripping narrative of escape and return home, but the story turned out to be false. The case illustrates how real content can be distorted and amplified by social media and Artificial Intelligence, raising concerns about misinformation and stereotypes

By now, the video has been viewed tens of millions of times. The internet is enchanted; how not to be?

The short clip shows a group of dogs in China who were allegedly captured to be eaten, but escaped and made the long journey home as an unlikely group – including a golden retriever, an injured German shepherd and a brave corgi leading the way.

The problem: the story isn’t real. Although the original video is authentic, showing seven dogs walking along a highway in northeastern China’s Jilin province, Chinese state media has already debunked the narrative of the escape and journey home.

Still, the imagined story took on a life of its own. Social media users compared it to the 1993 Disney film “Homeward Bound.” Versions generated by artificial intelligence followed: film posters with the seven dogs, a trailer depicting their emotional escape and even images of the reunion with ecstatic owners.

The phenomenon illustrates how misinformation can multiply after a viral moment, spreading seemingly harmless narratives that become more difficult to verify in the age of artificial intelligence. In this case, some of the false stories included racist stereotypes.

Amid the negative tone of the news, the public looks for light and comforting content, such as animal videos.

They offer a form of escape, but their popularity also encourages content creators to invent or exaggerate stories to generate clicks, explained TJ Thomson, associate professor of digital media at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.

“People are trying to capitalize on existing or trending viral content,” he said. “Attention is money online and on social media. The more attention you get, the more interaction you generate.”

The false narrative

The video of the seven dogs was initially recorded on March 15 by a man driving in a remote area of ​​Jilin province, according to Chinese state media outlet Cover News.

He posted it online, speculating that the group might have escaped from a dog transport vehicle — although he later clarified that he had seen no such escape.

The video went viral on Chinese social media, becoming one of the most popular topics and reaching more than 90 million views on Douyin and Weibo, two large platforms — quickly generating countless memes and discussions in messaging groups. It then spread globally, appearing on TikTok, X, Instagram and several international media outlets.

Theories abounded that the dogs could have been stolen. Users pointed out that several dogs walked close to the German shepherd, constantly looking at him — proof, they said, that the group was protecting an injured member.

Others fell in love with the little corgi who walked at the front of the group, sometimes falling back like a courageous leader who made sure no one was left behind.

The truth is much less romantic.

All the dogs belonged to inhabitants of the village a few kilometers from the highway where they were filmed, according to the state-run City Evening News, which tracked down the owners. The German shepherd was in heat, which is why the other dogs were approaching, the owners explained.

Most of the village’s dogs roamed freely and often disappeared for a day or two during heat, according to Cover News. The seven dogs have already returned home, and the German shepherd is now on a leash until the heat period ends.

There are likely several reasons the video went viral, Thomson said. Animal videos appeal to our “childlike nature” and desire to care for small creatures. Animals serve as a neutral canvas to express universal themes like community, belonging and loneliness, he added. And this type of content offers relief from a constant stream of news about wars and disasters.

Just look at how the internet embraced Moo Deng, the , or Punch, the . Both drew huge crowds after going viral.

Neither Punch nor Moo Deng have fake stories. But even real events can generate incorrect narratives — such as widespread concern online that Punch was being bullied by other monkeys, despite keepers explaining that such interactions are normal among Japanese macaques and that Punch is just learning the group’s hierarchy.

And even when viral videos are authentic, they are increasingly being used as a starting point for exaggerated narratives and AI-generated content — to capture engaged audiences.

In one recent case, a bus driver in Australia picked up a lamp post, placing him on the bus before contacting a rescue organization. The incident occurred at night and there were no passengers, but the original video generated a wave of false content.

Some showed AI-generated clips of the koala getting on the bus to join passengers — none of it was real.

Looking for clicks

The motivations behind fake content vary, but the strongest for many creators is to generate clicks and traffic that can be monetized on social media.

“This type of content can be extremely popular and go viral. This means it can be a very effective way to quickly increase an account’s numbers,” explained Tama Leaver, professor of internet studies at Curtin University in Perth, Australia.

For some people, it may not matter whether a viral animal video is real. But this becomes problematic when viewers accept what they see without question — especially on more serious topics.

For example, Leaver says there is a “tremendous amount” of fake images of the war in Iran that some people may accept as real.

“When we lower our expectations and admit that we don’t care in one context, it can mean that our critical skills won’t be as sharp in others,” he said.

This case of the seven dogs may seem trivial or harmless. But there are still risks — for example, false narratives that dogs were being transported to a slaughterhouse perpetuate a negative stereotype about Chinese people eating dogs, something that has historically fueled racism against Chinese people abroad.

Even now, with Chinese citizens in the West facing increased xenophobia in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, videos like this can influence how the country is viewed, Thomson said.

And as more AI-generated content floods the internet, misinformation is likely to continue to spread — challenging our perception of truth and trust.

Even light content like this runs the risk of “poisoning or clouding the information ecosystem… when we don’t really know what to trust, who to trust, whether we can believe what we see,” Thomson said.

“This leaves us in a worrying state.”