What was claimed
An injured dog has been found after a hit-and-run in Bexleyheath in south-east London.
Our verdict
The post is a hoax. It uses an image from a 2020 news article about an injured dog in the US.
Facebook post about dog ‘injured in a hit-and-run’ is a hoax
8 March 2023
A Facebook post (warning: contains distressing image) claims an injured dog has been found in Bexleyheath in south-east London, and asks people to “bump this post” to help find the dog’s owner.
However, the post is a hoax.
The post, which appeared in a local community group on 1 March, reads: “Hello. If anyone is looking for this sweet boy, found him lying on the side road in #bexleyheath He was hit by a car in a hit and run incident. I took him to the vet he is not chipped I know someone is looking for him. Please bump this post to help me find the owner. [sic]”
The image accompanying the post shows a small white dog with blood on its fur. However, a reverse image search shows that the photo actually comes from a local news article about a dog injured in a hit-and-run in New Jersey in the US in May 2020.
The post’s comments section has been disabled, which Derbyshire Police have previously warned is a sign posts like this may be fake.
Full Fact has previously fact checked many similar posts about injured dogs, a lost puppy, missing people and abandoned babies.
We’ve seen a number of instances where these sorts of posts are edited after reaching a lot of people, so they instead advertise surveys or housing websites.
Image courtesy of KarærinGodess
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because it uses an image of a dog injured in the US in 2020 and its form suggests it is a hoax.