Does a video show human meat for sale in a Paris butcher shop where arrests have been reportedly made? No, that's not true: There are no news reports matching the story of a butcher arrested for selling human meat in Paris. The video of a grocery meat case, originally published on Instagram on Jan. 6, 2026, was labeled "this beef leg🐄🐮" by an account posting content from Dubai.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the account @OANASA_X_ on X on Sept. 20, 2026. It read:
🚨🥩 Shocking Paris Butcher Shop Scandal Human Flesh Allegedly Discovered in Meat Supply! 😱🔪🇫🇷
This is what a screenshot from the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @OANASA_X_ on X.)
The video has several clips (pictured below) that deceptively set the scene in Paris. One clip shows the patch of the French National Police (archived here); another clip shows emergency vehicles crossing a bridge near the Louvre (archived here).
(Image source: post by @OANASA_X_ on X.)
The narration of the video begins:
He is a monster and will pay a heavy price for what he did. A massive controversy erupted after a piece of human flesh was discovered in a Paris butcher shop. The man who filmed the scene asked the butcher if it was truly a human leg, but received no answer. A few minutes later, he returned to the shop and the meat was gone. He decided to call the police, who arrested the butcher on suspicion of selling human flesh. The investigation later revealed that the butcher was trafficking meat, selling it in his shop as halal lamb and beef. Following the arrest, the shop was immediately sealed off and a major judicial investigation was launched by the Paris prosecutor's office.
This claim is unsubstantiated. A search of Yahoo News for the phrases "Paris butcher shop arrest" (archived here) and "Paris butcher human meat" (archived here) produced no relevant results. Additional searches on Google News for the same phrases, "Paris butcher shop arrest" (archived here) and "Paris butcher human meat" (archived here) also produced no relevant results.
The original video (archived here) showing the meat counter, without the Paris clips added, was published by the account @baraban_black on Instagram on Jan. 6, 2026 (embedded below). Visible in the meat case are unit price labels that are written in English and Arabic. The price labels of the imported meats in the case include the country of origin -- visible are Brazil and Pakistan. The man filming says something in Russian and then speaks English to the person behind the counter, "This is human? Human. Human?" The store clerk does not seem to understand his question and replies, "Pakistan." The post was captioned:
THIS BEEF LEG 🐄🐮
This was followed by a similar video (archived here) on Jan. 13, 2026. The second video appears to show the same meat counter, possibly on a different day -- the cuts and number of items differ, but the products occupy the same positions in the case. At the end of the second video the person filming turns the camera to his own leg and then his face. The person filming is the owner of the account who appears in other videos, driving, dining out and working out in Dubai.
This claim was also investigated by Annie Lab on March 5, 2026.
