This picture shows a dwarf buffalo from Thailand, not a pig and cow hybrid

This picture shows a dwarf buffalo from Thailand, not a pig and cow hybrid

(AFP) - Facebook posts shared thousands of times purport to show photos of a hybrid breed between a pig and a cow that is being exported from Thailand for the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The claim is false: the picture in fact shows a dwarf buffalo from Thailand; the pig and the cow species cannot be bred together.

The pictures were published on March 15, 2021, in a Facebook post, which has since been shared more than 9,500 times. The three photos show a short animal, a person’s hand holding meat with white dots, and red meat in a yellow plastic bag which also has white dots on it.

“COW PIG CROSS SPECIES. Oh God, at first look, it’s too cute to slaughter! Turns out it’s a cross between a pig and a cow. Has already entered Malaysia from Thailand, supposedly for the break of the fasting month!” the Facebook post’s Malaysian-language caption reads.

It also urges people to be careful if they see “bubbles” on the surface of meat products.

The pictures have also been shared on Facebook alongside a similar claim about a pig-cow hybrid.

Some Facebook posts share another photo of an animal to make a similar claim.

The claim is false: none of the pictures show a pig-cow hybrid nor its meat.

Dwarf buffalo and dwarf cow

A reverse image search of the first picture, followed by keyword searches, on Google found a video from Thai TV channel Matichon TV uploaded on October 11, 2018.

Translated from Thai, the video is titled: “Watch the cuteness of ‘Nong Kham Phaeng’, the dwarf buffalo that brings good luck. The owner reveals that somebody proposed to buy it for 1 million baht.”

Nong Kham Phaeng, the dwarf buffalo, belongs to a man named Jiradech Phanlee in Thailand’s northeastern Sakon Nakhon province and gained online fame when neighbours began posting photos on social media, the video’s caption reads.

A search on Jiradech’s Facebook page found that he had posted pictures of the dwarf buffalo a number of times, with the same picture uploaded on November 4, 2018.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the picture from the misleading post on Facebook (L) and the original Facebook photo (R):

The other animal photo previously appeared in Vietnamese-language news reports from May 2018 about a dwarf cow in Lang Chau village, Yen Lac commune, Yen Dinh district, Vietnam’s Thanh Hoa province.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the picture from another misleading post on Facebook (L) and the photo from the Vietnamese news report (R):

“It is impossible to cross-breed cows and pigs because the two belong to different animal families,” said Mohd Hair Bejo, veterinary professor at University Putra Malaysia (UPM), as quoted in a Harian Metro report on March 14, 2021. He further explained that pigs are grouped in the Suidae family while cows are in the Bovidae family, and they cannot result in a new animal breed.

Catfish meat

The second picture in the misleading post previously appeared in a February 16, 2020, article from Kompas.com, debunking the claim that catfish meat with white dots is not safe for consumption.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo from the misleading post (L) and the photo on Kompas.com (R):

Rotten meat

The last picture in the misleading post was published in a 2017 report from Egypt-based website Sada ElBalad warning people about rotten meat.

The picture was also mentioned in a previous debunk from AFP Fact Check.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo from the misleading post on Facebook (L) and the photo from the 2017 news report (R):