No, the World Economic Forum does not want to kill your pets

^{By Sonam Thomas}

A clip hosted on video-sharing platform Rumble and shared on Facebook claims the World Economic Forum has announced a policy to euthanise the majority of pets worldwide to curb greenhouse gas emissions.  

“The World Economic Forum has recently launched a controversial new initiative that will have animal rights activists up in arms,” a presenter in the video posted on December 9 claims. 

“The WEF, which has ordered mainstream media outlets to begin pushing the narrative, wants to introduce an international policy that would require the majority of pet owners to euthanise their animals,” he says.

But that claim is false. 

The WEF has made no recent announcements in relation to such an initiative via its official communication channels. 

A search of WEF records shows that it has published two discussion papers on pet food and its effect on the environment, one in 2017 and another in 2019. But Neither article makes any reference to euthanising pets. 

Furthermore, the “mainstream media” sources that the video points to as evidence for its claim have been misrepresented. 

Despite the video claiming the WEF was “calling for” pets to be euthanised, it provides no evidence of such a claim being made by the not-for-profit lobbying organisation based in Switzerland. 

Rather, it points to a number of news articles which it says the WEF “ordered” to be published, including a story by USA-based news outlet CNN in September. 

“CNN, always at the forefront of pushing the globalist agenda, has begun urging its viewers to starve their pets to death in an effort to combat climate change,” the presenter says. 

But the CNN article in question made no reference to pets being euthanised nor did it reference the WEF. 

Instead, the article referred to a 2017 study that suggested the meat-heavy diets of domestic cats and dogs were contributing to climate change and made suggestions for how pet owners could “minimise” their pet's environmental impact. 

The suggestions included minimising waste (for example, electing to use biodegradable poop bags for dogs), electing to adopt low environmental impact pets such as rodents and reptiles and the consideration of “new food developments” for dogs including lab-grown meat and insects. 

The article explicitly stated it was not suggesting pet ownership – including dogs and cats –should be reduced.   

“Bidding farewell to your best friends is not the answer,” the article reads. 

Similarly, a second article referenced in the video which was published by Bloomberg news in March makes no claim pets should be euthanised to combat climate change.

Rather, the article listed a number of tips for readers to reduce the financial stresses associated with rising inflation. This included a “rethink” of some veterinary procedures. 

“It may sound harsh, but researchers actually don’t recommend pet chemotherapy — which can cost up to $10,000 — for ethical reasons,” the article reads. 

The video suggests the articles were released “at the same time” but the publication dates of each of the articles show they were published more than six months apart. 

Finally, the video references comments made by British actor Dame Emma Thompson during a protest organised by the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion in London in December 2019 as further evidence of a plot to eliminate pets.

A video of the speech was later published by Sky News in January 2020 and depicts Dame Emma reading a satirical weather forecast. 

“And now, to the weather,” she says. “For those of you expecting a habitable future we have got some pretty gloomy projections for you. Climate crisis trends show an increased chance of warmer, wetter winters and hotter, drier summers, along with an increase in the frequency and intensity of extremes.

“Better wrap up warm, stockpile food and remember there is a surprising amount of protein in the average household pet.”

Despite the current shared videos linking Dame Emma to the so-called recent WEF report, her mock weather forecast at the Extinction Rebellion protest was actually made three years ago.

FactLab contacted the WEF for comment but had received no response at the time of publication.