Facebook’s mass hysteria fake.
Facebook has been overwhelmed with an unfounded rumor of food baited with nails found at dog parks. It’s not true. Over 15,000 Facebook members shared the story with their family of friends, and over 12,000 have commented on it. The vast majority believe it.
The real ironic fact behind this is that it’s being spread by a self-proclaimed dog-lover: Eric ‘Pack Ethic’ Bellows. He introduced it by saying: “New trend at dog parks, nails in pieces of cheese, if you take your dogs to dog parks, please be careful!!” *
The real story.
First and foremost, there are no reports that it had ever happened in a dog park, but the one event supposedly took place in a kennel in South America.
The claimed event happened back in July, 2011. The story appeared on a single Spanish web site claiming that one person supposedly found a single piece of cheese at a dog kennel in Buenos Aires. It did not report that any dog ingested one, found one, or any details about the kennel.
No other place on the planet has had such events reported.
So what exactly are all those people accomplishing?
1) a warning to dog owners?
2) a suggestion to copycat sickos? (correct answer)
On Monday night (two days ago), I posted the following comment on Eric Bellows’ Facebook page:
“You are grossly irresponsible for posting that contrived photo of nails in food, and suggesting that it had anything to do with “dog parks.” If you were really a dog lover, you would not be spreading the mass hysteria which will only provide ideas to copycat sickos.”
He deleted my comment within minutes, but kept the ultra-exaggerated story. His reason could be because he accepts donations for his apparent love for dogs, and this story is giving him a lot of notoriety. He’s gained over one thousand (1,000) followers since he posted it.
Folks, do not believe everything you read. Scams are abundant and they feed off gullible people.
*ADDENDUM
Oct 5 evening Eastern Time — After 4-5 days online with the original “New trend at dog parks…” introduction, he has now changed the lead-in wording to read:
“This picture is not a confirmed case in the US, it was sent to me to be passed around. I shared this because of the similarity to the Poison meatball cases that have been going on. The more knowledge we have of the way these sick minds think the better we can look our dogs and protect them from harm.”
What “poison meatball” cases?
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ADDITIONAL INFO …
The story as it was covered on MyFoxHouston.
The original Facebook post (with the new introduction).
October 6th, 2011 at 09:34:10 (9:34 am)
The poisoned meatball story rings familiar through reports I read about dogs being poisoned in Lima, Peru. I read that from tweeps in Lima who have dogs and in Peruvian online news outlets over the last year or two.
October 6th, 2011 at 16:32:07 (4:32 pm)
Thanks Antje. It would seem that a small number of people in parts of South America have heinous intentions.
October 17th, 2011 at 06:09:28 (6:09 am)
Well, Rescue Ink members are calling Eric Bellows a scammer, and since he was one of their own, I guess this story more shows that he is quite possibly.
He supposedly is saying he has some of their dogs and is taking over Rescue Inks 7,000 a month in donations since Rescue Ink dissolved its charity. Rescue Ink members across FB have reported asking for info on him as he supposedly is breeding dogs, putting down dogs he has taken in and is scamming donations.
I am ticked he posted this story. I have never seen food placed anywhere at dog parks- And you can be sure most owners do not let their dogs eat strange food.
And this story did make people want to do something more to animals.
It ticked me off that it was going around.
Eric Bellows if you are a scammer hurting dogs, you are going DOWN!
November 4th, 2011 at 20:03:57 (8:03 pm)
@ Shannon,
Thanks for chiming in here with additional information. I’m amazed how easy it is to scam so many people. I believe his story has been shared over 17,000 times. He probably saw it as $$ to him.
Also, I love your subtle approach, especially with your last sentence. People will stand by their beliefs even when red flags are smacking them in the face.
November 20th, 2011 at 20:14:55 (8:14 pm)
This just kind of hit me: Eric Bellows goes by “Pack Ethic” yet his post was “Pathetic” … is that an oxymoron?