Fake News: Transspecies Man Did NOT Abandon Family to Live Naked in the Forest As a Squirrel

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk

No, Alan Meyers, an electrician and father of two from Dyersburg, Tennessee did not abandon his wife and children to go live naked in the woods because he believes himself to be a (transspecies) squirrel. If you read an article about that somewhere and you believed it you were taken in by a satirical website.

The story originated with an article published on World News Daily Report under the title "Transspecies man abandons family to live naked in the forest as a squirrel" on March 1st 2018 (archived here) which opened:

A man who describes himself as an "animal stuck inside a human body", has decided to abandon his wife and children to live the life of a squirrel in the woods.

Alan Meyers, an electrician and father of two from Dyersburg in Tennessee, has always described himself as a squirrel stuck in a man's body and has been for years a militant of the transspecies movement.

Mr. Meyers was diagnosed with a condition called clinical lycanthropy, a rare psychiatric syndrome that involves a delusion that the affected person can transform into, has transformed into, or is a non-human animal.

We haven't been able to definitively identify the man in the picture but it appears to be taken from following stock photo which has been around since at least 2008:

Human being Man Nature - a Royalty Free Stock Photo from Photocase

Buy this Royalty Free Stock Photo on Human being Man Nature Tree Forest Naked Power Healthy for your Website, Book Cover, Flyer, Article, Blog or Template.

squirrelman.jpg

The website World News Daily Report is a well known satirical website specialized in posting hoaxes and made up stories. The disclaimer on their website is pretty clear about that even though you have to scroll all the way down the page to find it:

World News Daily Report assumes all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website - even those based on real people - are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any person, living, dead or undead, is purely a miracle.

It is run by Janick Murray-Hall and Olivier Legault, who also run the satirical Journal de Mourréal, a satirical site spoofing the (real) Journal de Montéal. His stories often get copied by "real" fake news sites without attribution and with the omission of the satire disclaimer, causing many people to believe the story is real. Or folks might just see the story on social media where there is no obvious indication the article is just a joke:

Transspecies man abandons family to live naked in the forest as a squirrel

A man who describes himself as an "animal stuck inside a human body", has decided to abandon his wife and children to live the life of a squirrel in the woods.

Want to inform others about the accuracy of this story?

See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:


  Maarten Schenk

Maarten Schenk is the co-founder and COO/CTO of Lead Stories and an expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

About Us

International Fact-Checking Organization EFCSN Meta Third-Party Fact Checker

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

Lead Stories is a:


WhatsApp Tipline

Have a tip or a question? Chat with our friendly robots on WhatsApp!

Add our number +1 (404) 655-4223, follow this link or scan the image below with your phone:

@leadstories

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Most Read

Most Recent

Share your opinion