BBC uncovers the scammers exploiting dogs to elicit donations from animal lovers Chiara Francavilla,Godfrey BadebyeandCatherine Namugerwa,BBC Africa Eye , MityanaBBCRusset was treated by a vet after being injured and used in fraudulent campaigns to raise money A dog with rust-coloured fur lies at the side of a road. He looks peaceful, but as the TikTok video pans from his face to the rest of his body, severe injuries to his hind legs appear.The dog is not resting. He is panting, presumably in pain.Text on the 15-second clip tells viewers that this dog "got into an accident" and asks them "to save his life" by donating through an online link.In the three weeks after the video was first posted on 8 January last year, this dog was featured in hundreds of other fundraising campaigns, by at least a dozen accounts.A social media user from the UK named the dog Russet, which reflected the colour of his coat.
Thousands of dollars were raised for his treatment. But he never got better.BBC Africa Eye has discovered that this dog in Uganda was a prop in a scam that solicits donations for animals in distress, part of a hidden industry profiting from cruelty.It is impossible to conclusively establish what caused Russet's injuries, but BBC World Service journalists managed to piece together parts of his story, which suggest he endured prolonged suffering, regardless of the cause.The story connects a town in Uganda with animal lovers thousands of miles away. They are coaxed into parting with their money through emotional images, lies and the exploitation of Western stereotypes of Africa such as endemic poverty and widespread indifference towards animal welfare.But it is dogs like Russet who pay the biggest price.He was filmed in Mityana, a trading centre around 70km (43 miles) from Uganda's capital, Kampala.The town has become infamous among online animal rescue activists around the world for one thing - sham dog rescue shelters.Ugandan scammers have realised just how popular dogs are in Europe, North America and Australia, and how easily social media's obsession with dogs can be converted into cash."There are young men in the [Ugandan] countryside who are always looking for anything to do on the internet," Bart Kakooza, chairman of the Uganda Society for the Protection and Care of Animals, tells the BBC."On the other side, in the Western world, people are very passionate about animals.
These young men realised they can make money if they can get a dog."It is impossible to say how many social media accounts operate from Mityana. But collectively, they have flooded Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube with videos of pitiful-looking animals - mostly dogs and cats, but even rabbits – with commentary pleading for donations to shelter, feed and treat them.The scammers flood social media with appeals for fundsA typical video involves a person showing some dogs in a makeshift structure coupled with messages like "our dogs are hungry" or "it's another day without food at the shelter" and "please help us". The clips often exploit what content creators think will resonate with viewers' existing perceptions of Africa, depicting it as a place where food is scare and young dog lovers must fight against the odds to protect animals from societal hostility and neglect.Data analysis by BBC Africa Eye suggests these videos have been effective in converting views into donations.In the past five years, our research showed that more than $730,000 (£540,000) has been raised for animal shelters in Uganda by hundreds of fundraisers posted on the donation platform GoFundMe.Nearly 40% of all the fundraisers analysed by the BBC were connected to Mityana.In the town, the business of sham dog shelters is an open secret.
Several residents tell the BBC it is easy to spot the con artists."When you see a young man driving a Subaru [a status symbol car in the area], you just know he is a scammer," says one.Another says: "The scammers are the most respected here in Mityana".But very few residents are willing to speak openly about specific shelter operations as they fear retaliation. The BBC decides to send an undercover team to Mityana.The journalists pose as newcomers wanting to enter the business of online dog-shelter content.They discover that some establishments in the area are rented out to multiple content creators.The shelters charge an entrance fee to film with the owner's dogs. The videos are then posted on the scammer's social media accounts and affiliated online fundraisers, usually a GoFundMe or PayPal link.This means the same physical shelter and the same dogs are used by several different accounts to solicit money.The BBC team gains access to one of these shelters, run by a young man who introduces himself as Charles Lubajja.Secret filming reveals the conditions the dogs are being kept inAt the shelter, the journalists find about 15 dogs kept in the same cage, lying in their own waste.
Many appear severely underweight and lethargic.Lubajja tells the undercover reporters that the shelter primarily exists to make money from social media viewers abroad under false pretences. He gives some advice on how to increase revenues, and shares some of the tricks, including:Pretending that a landowner has threatened the shelter with eviction and money is needed to relocate itFilming fake veterinary treatments, for example by placing a syringe in the dog's fur rather than administering a real injectionInflating the cost of dog food by more than 11 times."Once you receive the GoFundMe money, you use it to buy a car or build a house," Lubajja says while being secretly filmed."Once you get a white donor, don't treat them as a brother. You have to squeeze them [take their money].
Drain them."But as fake operations like Lubajja's spread across the internet, a growing number of donors came to realise they had been deceived. Initiatives then sprang up to stop the scammers.Campaigners' tactics inclu
Extract — continue reading at the source.
