The earthquake in Turkey and Syria has claimed more than 17,000 lives and rescue workers are struggling to evacuate survivors four days after the 7.8-magnitude-strong earthquake wreaked havoc. Amid the grim scenario, a video has emerged that claims that cats and other animals felt the earthquake long before it actually struck Turkey and Syria.
The video shows a herd of cats sitting in a queue near a set of staircases in the night with their eyes glowing. The video claims that they were feeling the earthquake when it had actually not struck Turkey. However, the claim is false and the video has nothing to do with the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on Monday morning.
Strange Claim
The strange claim appeared in a video posted to Instagram on Tuesday, the day after the earthquake. The video shows a large herd of cats with their eyes blinking at night. The video opens with this caption over the video: “Animals feeling the earthquake before the earthquake.”
The Instagram video features two separate clips. The first video clip shows numerous cats roaming through the night on a street. The second clip is the subject of this fact check. The video shows several cats coming toward a particular point.
The person who posted the video clip claims that the cats were feeling the earthquake hours before it actually struck Turkey.
However, the claim is completely false. The video was actually shot in Saudi Arabia and not in Turkey or Syria, where the catastrophic natural disaster struck on February 6, 2023
False and Baseless
The video has been taken seriously by several social media users in the aftermath of the deadly earthquake that has already claimed more than 17,000 lives and the count is likely to only increase in the coming days as several bodies are feared trapped under the rubble.
In fact, the second clip is an excerpt from a 2022 video that went viral and was recorded by a Saudi Arabian citizen who feeds stray cats on the streets of Jeddah.
Here’s the original video that was shot in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia last year.
An article published on Yahoo.com on November 20, 2022, titled: Dozens of Jeddah Street Cats Approach Good Samaritan Coming to Feed Them”, mentions that all the cats seen in the video had “glowing” eyes.
The footage matches the second clip in the video posted on Instagram as this screenshot shows.
Besides, Times Now also posted the video on their YouTube page on November 23, 2022, with the caption, “Why Cats With Glowing Eyes Filled The Streets Of Jeddah.”
Here’s the video that was uploaded by Times Now:
Thus the claim is completely false as there is no proven record that cats and other animals felt the earthquake before it struck Turkey and Syria around 4:30 am on Monday. The video is just an attempt to spread misinformation and is fake news.
