Was 79-year old Jeremiah Bishop from Los Lunas in New Mexico arrested for making wigs out of neighborhood dogs? No, that's not true: the story was made up by a Canadian entertainment website that makes a living by publishing fictional stories often involving weird crimes, bizarre sex acts or strange accidents. It is not real.
The story originated from an article published on February 19, 2019 by World News Daily Report titled "79-year-old man arrested for making wigs out of dozens of neighborhood dogs" (archived here) which opened:
A New Mexico man has been arrested and accused of kidnapping local neighborhood dogs and making wigs and various accessories with their fur.
Los Lunas authorities became increasingly alarmed after dozens of pets had disappeared in the area in the past year.A local citizen also alerted the Los Lunas Police Department after discovering that Jeremiah Bishop, 79, was operating a website where he managed to sell wigs, fur handbags, and custom underwear.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
79-year-old man arrested for making wigs out of dozens of neighborhood dogs
A New Mexico man has been arrested and accused of kidnapping local neighborhood dogs and making wigs and various accessories with their fur. Los Lunas authorities became increasingly alarmed after dozens of pets had disappeared in the area in the past year. A local citizen also alerted the Los L
But the man in the picture is not from New Mexico: he is Ronald Snyder of Chatsworth and he was arrested for robbery in 2013:
Wig-wearing robbery suspect pleads no contest to charges
Ronald Snyder of Chatsworth was charged with multiple counts, including assault with a firearm, burglary, grand theft, criminal threats, possession of a firearm and dissuading a witness by force or threat, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.
The website World News Daily Report is a 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. Very often their stories feature an image showing a random crazy mugshot found in a mugshot gallery on the internet or on a stock photo website superimposed over a background of flashing police lights or crime scene tape.
Articles from the site are frequently copied (sometimes even months or years later) by varous fake news websites that omit the satire disclaimer and present the information as real.
NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalist to rank the reliability of websites, describes worldnewsdailyreport.com as:
A website that publishes hoaxes and made-up stories that are often widely shared and mistaken for news.
According to NewsGuard the site does not maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability. Read their full assessment here.
We wrote about worldnewsdailyreport.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Man Did NOT Get 3rd Testicle Removed, Did NOT Discover It Was His Dead Siamese Brother
- Fake News: Cannibal Killer Did NOT Slaughter and Eat 23 Pizza Delivery Men, 6 Jehovah Witnesses, 2 Postmen in Past 7 Years
- Fake News: Couple Having Sex Outdoors in Bigfoot Costumes NOT Accidentally Shot by Hunters
- Fake News: NO Florida Nursing Home Shut Down by FDA for Feeding Elders With Dog Food
- Fake News: Zoo Keeper NOT Accused of Impregnating Female Orangutan in Indonesia
