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| AI-generated image showing the viral human-to-dog claim |
Trendivox report: There is a weird video going around that says a Japanese man spent a lot of money to turn himself into a dog. This video looks very real, so a lot of people on social media are wondering if it is actually possible for a person to become an animal.
But there is something to know about this story: the idea that a man actually turned into a dog is not true.
Did the Japanese Man Really Become a Dog?
No, there is no credible evidence that a person has been physically transformed into a real dog through surgery or any other method.
The story that is going around on the internet is mixing up videos with a real story about a Japanese man named Toco.
Toco became famous because he wanted to dress up as a dog, which was a dream he had when he was a kid. He did not have surgery to change his body but instead asked a Japanese special effects company called Zeppet to make him a very realistic dog costume that looked like a Collie.
According to Zeppet’s website, they made a custom dog suit for an individual client. It took them about 40 days to make it, and the suit cost around 2 million yen. Zeppet’s official dog model suit page
This is very different from what people are saying on the internet, which is that someone spent hundreds of millions or billions of rupees to actually become a dog.
So Who Is Toco?
Toco is the name that the Japanese man uses online. He has a YouTube channel called “I Want To Be An Animal,” where he posts videos of himself wearing the dog costume and acting like a dog. A lot of people from around the world watch his videos.
One of his videos shows him walking around in public wearing the costume, with people interacting with him and real dogs. This video got shared widely on social media, and even Euronews talked about his story in 2023.
Read the Euronews report about Toco
Toco wanted a costume that looked like a Collie because he wanted a realistic animal that would hide the fact that he is a person.
Now Where Does Artificial Intelligence Come Into All of This?
Artificial intelligence can make videos and pictures that look very real but are actually fake. This means that people can make videos of things that are not actually happening, like people turning into animals or famous people doing things they did not really do.
When these videos get shared without any context, people can easily think they are real.
The story about the man becoming a dog is an example of why we should not always believe what we see in videos. Just because a video looks real, it does not mean it actually happened.
Fact-checkers have examined similar claims and found that the real story involves Toco and his realistic dog costume, not a human being physically transformed into a dog.
The Real Story Is Still Pretty Weird
Toco spent a lot of money on a made-to-order animal costume and he keeps making videos about it. The company that made the costume, Zeppet, now makes a range of realistic animal costumes, including ones that look like Collies, Poodles and Malamutes.
See Zeppet’s custom-made realistic animal models
So Did a Japanese Man Really Become a Dog?
No, not really. He just wore a realistic dog costume, while fake or AI-generated videos and misleading posts made it seem like he actually turned into a dog.
The lesson here is that when we see a video that seems too good (or crazy) to be true, we should always check where it came from to see if it is real.
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