Wednesday, Sep. 1, 2021
Did the United States leave behind military working dogs in cages in Afghanistan?
A photo of dogs in cages in front of a military helicopter has convinced many people that the U.S. military left them behind in Afghanistan.
The Defense Department has been kept busy since then explaining that none of them are military working dogs.
Eric Pahon, a Pentagon spokesman, told Lead Stories: "The U.S. military did not leave any dogs in cages at Hamid Karzai International Airport….No military working dogs were left behind. Photos circulating online were animals under the care of the Kabul Small Animal Rescue, not dogs under the care of the U.S. military."
It appears that several contract companies that had dogs in Afghanistan were working with the Kabul Small Animal Rescue organization to safely evacuate them.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- John Kirby Tweet by Pentagon spokesman
- Military Times No, the military did not leave its working dogs behind, DoD says
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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.
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