A photo showing a man giving a puppy vodka directly from the bottle is an old hoax.
The image has been circulating since at least 2012 but it started to pick up traffic again in late January 2014.
“Repost until this person is caught and prosecuted,” the text says under the image of the tattooed man.
According to the Barrie Advance near Toronto, the man in the picture is a local man named Alex Barker.
Barrie Police investigated and found that the bottle cap was on when the picture was taken.
A number of threats were reportedly made to Barker on Facebook and Twitter as a result.
“Barrie police investigated and found a local man who was in the picture. He told officers he was at a friend’s home to visit the new puppy when the dog grabbed the sealed vodka bottle and started chewing on it,” the Barrie Advance reads. “It was dragging the capped bottle around on the floor, and the pair decided to start taking pictures.”
Barker then grabbed the bottle and it turned into a tug-of-war, resulting in the picture.
When it was first published, the image got more than 200,000 “likes” on Facebook, essentially going viral. A number of people thought it was real and made threats to Barker.
The dog’s owner confirmed to the Advance that the puppy didn’t drink any liquor.
On Jan 30., however, the photo again went viral.
“Saw a photo of a man force feeding his puppy vodka, I think I want to be sick,” wrote one user on Twitter.
Added another, “I can’t stand pictures of animal cruelty. Feeding a tiny puppy vodka?”
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