QUESTION:
Are people adopting pitbulls to have them euthanized?
ANSWER:
No, we can verify this is false.
SOURCES:
Google Reverse Image Search, Washington Humane Rescue Alliance
PROCESS:
Animal lovers are outraged over the latest hashtag on Twitter: #PitbullDropOff. It's cruel, but is it credible?
Post after post says people are adopting pitbulls, just to then drop them off at shelters to be euthanized. So here's how we sniffed out the truth about the claim.
Our researchers dropped the pictures into Google reverse image search to figure out where they came from. Turns out, several of the images used in the hashtag post were ripped from blog sites about dogs or puppies, some as far back as 2011. So those repost pictures are not original authentic photos.
Next our team contacted animal control and shelters in the D.C. area about the trend.
Officials at the Washington Humane Rescue Alliance told Verify researchers they have no reports of it happening and since people are allegedly picking up and dropping these dogs off from their buildings, they would know.
Also the Animal Welfare League of Arlington, in Arlington, Va. responded the hashtag is just an internet hoax on social media.
All bark but no bite with this insensitive hashtag claim, we can verify pitbulls are not being adopted to be euthanized.
Since the viral hashtag took off in mid-May, people have reported the hashtag to Twitter asking the social media site to ban the accounts and hashtag of pitbull dropoff, but so far Twitter has not removed any.
