Did a man on drugs named Wendell Garrison break into a pet shop and eat 10lbs of dog food? 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 August 29, 2017 titled "Man on drugs breaks into a pet shop and eats 10 lbs of dog food" (archived here) which opened:
Denver, Colorado | A man with an extremely bad case of munchies was arrested last night after he broke into a pet shop and devoured over ten pounds of dog biscuits and dry food.
Officers of the Denver Police Department arrived at the Dog Kingdom pet shop around 3:00 AM this morning after the store's alarm was triggered by a presumed intruder.
Once on the site, they noticed a broken window and found 49-year old Wendell Garrison inside the store, chewing on some dog biscuits.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Man on drugs breaks into a pet shop and eats 10 lbs of dog food
Denver, Colorado | A man with an extremely bad case of munchies was arrested last night after he broke into a pet shop and devoured over ten pounds of dog biscuits and dry food. Officers of the Denver Police Department arrived at the Dog Kingdom pet shop around 3:00 AM this morning after the store'
The story went viral again in 2019, despite the fact that it seems to be using the mugshot of someone who was arrested in California for public intoxication:
Victor Allen Clark , Shasta CA - July 27th 2012 - ShastaMugshots.com
Mugshot For Victor Allen Clark in Shasta CA on July 27th 2012
The website World News Daily Report is a humor 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.
On March 20, 2019 the site added a new header that included the slogan "Where facts don't matter" to make it clearer to casual visitors the published content is fictional:
The site often uses images stolen without attribution from real news websites, sometimes showing real people who have nothing to do with the story, for example here:
Woman Says Newborn Photo Stolen for Satirical Fake News Story
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.
We wrote about worldnewsdailyreport.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: FDA Did NOT Approve New Tranquilizing Darts for Children
- Fake News: Retired CIA Agent Did NOT Confess on Deathbed He Killed Marilyn Monroe
- Fake News: 91-Year-Old Catholic Nun Did NOT Auction Her Virginity To Rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral in France
- Fake News: Kenya: Authorities Did NOT Release Barack Obama's 'Real' Birth Certificate
- Fake News: Man Did NOT Fake Being Deaf and Dumb for 62 Years to Avoid Listening to Wife
