Claim about German bestiality brothels is based on outdated article

A video clip posted on Facebook uses outdated information to baselessly claim that there are bestiality brothels "spreading" in Germany.

"German perverts open bestiality brothels," says the caption on the video posted April 6 by Michael Knowles, who hosts a show at The Daily Wire, a conservative news website. In the video, Knowles reads aloud from what he says is a story published "today" by the British newspaper Daily Mail.

Knowles read the headline of the story, "Bestiality brothels are 'spreading through Germany' warns campaigner as abusers turn to sex with animals as 'lifestyle choice.'" He also read the first paragraphs of the story.

The video was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

But the Daily Mail story that Knowles cited was published in July 2013. And even before it was published, Germany’s parliament had voted in early 2013 to criminalize "using an animal for personal sexual activities."

In the video, Knowles said, "One thing we predicted was that if you lift the traditional social and political restrictions on sexual activity and you redefine marriage and you redefine the whole family …you’re going to have people not just having sex with each other … you’re going to have people having sex with animals."

We reached out to Knowles for comment but did not receive a reply.

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The claim about bestiality brothels appears to have come from a single person who the Daily Mail identified as a "livestock protection officer." The officer didn’t provide any examples of the brothels but cited a German farmer who was concerned about his sheep which he said had been sexually abused by men sneaking into his barn.

In the Daily Mail story, the livestock protection officer calls for the government to ban bestiality, something the German government had already done months before the story published. A bid to overturn the law was shot down by Germany's constitutional court in 2016.

We did not find any credible reports of "bestiality brothels" spreading in Germany.

The caption on an April 6 Facebook video said, "German perverts open bestiality brothels." It cited a Daily Mail story that allegedly was published "today."

But the Daily Mail story was published in July 2013 and contained outdated information. The German government outlawed bestiality in February 2013. We found no credible reports to back the claim.

We rate this post False.