Three Men Disguised As 'Shaun The Sheep' Attempted to Cross Spanish Border – The Truth Behind The Viral Rumour

While we've all heard of the saying about people as 'sheep dressed in wolf's clothing,' but the internet has given these words new meaning — presenting a different imagery in the past few days: a rumour claiming that three migrants were arrested while attempting to illegally enter Spain disguised as sheep.

The photo featuring three people covered in woolly white costumes and black face paint has gone viral on X, TikTok and Facebook has sparked 'news'-type posts, political arguments and shocked responses worldwide.

However, the truth is far less dramatic.

Fact-Check: The Photo Is Miscaptioned

This TikTok video suggested that the men were caught 'trying to cross the border disguised as sheep', even going as far as giving commentary on the said 'situation,' even singing to the tune of the nursery rhyme 'Bah Bah Black Sheep':

On X, users wrote dramatic captions such as:

'In Algeria, 3 individuals of unknown nationality were arrested as they attempted to cross into Spain... disguised as sheep.'

According to fact-checking reports from Yahoo News and Snopes, the image is not evidence of a criminal border crossing. It is actually a screenshot from a 2024 dance video based on the children's TV show 'Shaun the Sheep,' filmed months before this rumour emerged.

The clip, which was first uploaded on TikTok in 2024, shows several people dancing to the German version of the children's show's theme song, wearing playful sheep costumes.

Other users recreated the same trend, proving it was part of a light-hearted viral dance — not a smuggling operation:

The viral image, making its rounds online was flipped horizontally and miscaptioned to create a believable — albeit false — story about migration.

No Evidence of an Arrest in Algeria or Spain

Searches through Europol announcements and European media archives found no verified reports of anyone arrested in Algeria or Spain for crossing borders in animal costumes. Europol's most recent relevant case, published in August 2025, involved smuggling migrants to Spain by boat, not by disguise.

Although the viral story is false, a real case involving a 'sheep escape' did occur in Bolivia. In 2023, convicted murder Jose Luis Callisaya Diaz tried to flee a maximum-security prison while dressed as a sheep and crawling across a field. He was immediately caught.

Unlike the Bolivian prison incident, however, this viral claim relied entirely on miscaptioned footage and public imagination.

Depiction of a sheep

The rumour's popularity reflects a wider trend: sensational claims frequently go viral, especially when they involve humour or shock value, especially now that the UK has recently decided on a major asylum policy change amid heated immigration debates, announcing the most significant overhaul of its system in decades.

Ultimately, the fascination with the so-called 'sheep migrants' shows how easily entertainment, fear and misinformation blend online. A single screenshot, detached from context, can quickly become global 'news' without ever touching reality. As playful content continues to be repurposed into political narratives, fact-checking remains essential — not to ruin the joke, but to stop humour from being weaponised as fiction.

In short: no sheep-disguised criminals crossed the Spanish border. The internet simply got pulled into the flock.