Fact Check

Chipotle Exposed for Using Dog and Cat Meat in Food?

The FDA did not bust Chipotle for using dog and cat meat in their food. It's fake news.

Published Nov. 19, 2014

Claim:

Claim: The FDA busted Chipotle in the act of using cat and dog meat and is forcing the chain to close all locations.


FALSE


Origins:   On 18 November 2014, the Huzlers web site published an article titled "Chipotle Exposed for Using Dog and Cat Meat in Food; Will Close Soon." According to that offering, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discovered dog and cat carcasses used by Chipotle Mexican Grill during a Denver factory inspection and ordered the factory shut down, with a closure of all Chipotle locations soon to follow:



The FDA suspected the chain was using dog and cat meat when an FDA inspector stumbled upon multiple live dogs and cat, as well as dog and cat corpses in one Chipotle factory located in Denver. The FDA will soon force all Chipotle restaurants in the U.S. to prevent people from consuming dog and cat meat.

But why would Chilotle use dog and cat meat? FDA official Charles Wellington says "It makes sense for Chipotle to use dog and cat meat simply because it is much cheaper and easier to find than cow meat, many people love Chipotle dishes and don't even know they're eating dogs and cats because it's psychological, which Chipotle is aware of. As soon as people find out, they will all of a sudden think "wait, the meat did taste kind of weird sometimes", it's all placebo".


The article's horrible formatting and nonsensical reasoning alone should be enough to tip off readers that Huzlers is one of several fake news sites that promotes fantastically fictional clickbait stories to attain traffic through social media shares. Previous Huzlers hoaxes included Justin Bieber's coming out as bisexual and claims that the 2014 Super Bowl was rigged. The Huzlers site displays a disclaimer on its pages noting "Huzlers.com is a combination of real shocking news and satire news to keep its visitors in a state of disbelief."

Last updated:   8 February 2016

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.