The little tattooed dog!
We are currently receiving a number of inquiries about a picture in which a man holds a dog (Chihuahua) with a tattoo on his stomach into the camera. This picture is about:
The problem of finding sources
When we receive such requests, we naturally try as best we can to locate the source of the image so that we can shed light on the background if necessary. However, sometimes this is extremely difficult because, for example, the image is years old and has been copied, shared, remounted and re-uploaded in countless variations.
So does this picture: The oldest versions of this picture come from 2012 . Judging by the label on the van in the background, it's obvious that this picture was taken in France. We can also confirm that the picture or tattoo is real, it is not an image manipulation.
However, after 6 years, further information or background information could no longer be determined.
The situation itself
So it is a real tattoo on the stomach of a live dog. There is no question that such a thing is ethically reprehensible and that doing something like that to a dog is animal cruelty.
However, the request to share the post in order to identify the owner is probably pointless. Even we couldn't find any trace after weeks of extensive searching. It's been at least 6 years since the photo was taken and posted online.
Sharing certainly doesn't help the animal, like none of these posts we've analyzed over time.
But it shows a phenomenon that we observe again and again and which we would like to describe here:
Generally speaking – the animal suffering scam
This picture is just an example of a phenomenon that is unfortunately just as “at home” on Facebook as fake competitions, nonsensical chain letters and data octopuses in the form of apps that want to use my name to find out what my spirit animal is or the like.
Reach and interaction are key on Facebook. If you post a post, it won't spread much without help. So you either have to spend money and advertise it so that it appears in the target group's newsfeed, or...
...you just take a post that goes viral on its own because you know that you can rely on the “power of outrage”. Always works. Without exception.
Whether it's a tattooed dog, a cat being held up by its ears or supposedly abandoned dogs. Doesn't matter. As soon as animal suffering is involved, some Facebook users know no boundaries. People share, express their indignation, sometimes hurl the worst insults and even blatant death threats into the world, and get angry. And in a style that even we, who now really get to see a lot, can't help but shake our ears.
Mission accomplished! The image goes viral on a wave of outrage and emotional Facebook comment orgasms.
And the creator of the post - if it is a company or community page - has saved a lot of money, his page has more likes, the posts have more interaction and other posts may now be classified as more important by Facebook.
Or if it's a private profile, then... yes, then we no longer know what's going on with such a person, what they want to achieve with it. Does he feel more important? Will he now brag that his post has been shared hundreds of thousands of times? What does someone think when they sometimes take a picture demonstrably out of context and send it on its way with a made-up story? Or when he shares a picture that is years old, the story is long over, or happened so far away that it makes no sense to share it here.
Cui bono? – Who benefits from it?
Certainly not the animals that these posts are about. Even with a picture shared in Germany about a 10-year-old story from Chile about dog abuse (real case!), you won't find a perpetrator. (In the example from Chile, for example, he had already been arrested long ago.)
It benefits the creators of the posts. The site operators or private individuals. Nobody else. A dubious benefit.
We don't know whether it helps the people who share this unseen and unchecked. We don't know what benefit the people who comment on such images with hateful tirades and death threats. Maybe a moment of satisfaction? The feeling of having done something? Not to have been idle?
You can call it clicktivism. There are plenty of opportunities to really and effectively get involved. Promote projects that take care of street dogs. Donations to animal shelters. Many veterinarians, for example, have a donation box for food etc. in their practice or you can sponsor animals and, and, and...
But because it is much easier to leave a comment or reaction to such posts from your home computer or smartphone, unfortunately, even in the future, the interactors' intentions, no matter how good, will die out on a viral wave in the vastness of social networks. without accomplishing anything.
Author: Rüdiger, mimikama.org
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )


