Apart from expanding the borders of human knowledge and making universal information easily available, the Internet also offers users a respite from their busy lives in the form of silly photos and videos featuring animals. Sometimes, however, the stories behind these animals are not as lighthearted as we would like.
A few days ago, Stephen Roseman posted an image of a dog on Facebook, with the following caption:
"This poor dog was badly burned and disfigured trying to save his family from a house fire. One like = one prayer. One share = ten prayers."
An army of people on Facebook shared and liked the heartbreaking story, forgetting what should be an elementary rule over the Internet: always check your facts before posting.
Depending on your sense of humor and sensitivity to animal rights, Roseman is either a funny prankster or the worst person imaginable. Apart from the debatable exchange rate of likes and share per prayers, a few things pop from the story.
First of all, it should be noted that the dog was not harmed in any way, be it in a fire or otherwise. Second, observant Facebook users quickly noted that the dog simply has a piece of ham over its face.
Roseman clarified that the dog is not his, and that he simply reposted a picture he found on Facebook. He also noted that his "appeal to empathy" was a form of irony aimed to be a stand against those who write tear-jerking posts which do little to help the actual victims.
"Tup, this is a mockery and I did it all for teh LuLz!" Roseman pointed out.
Roseman might have started the wave of sympathy, but the surging number or shares and likes show that people's good wishes are with Ham Dog, who is the real hero. The level of patience and magnanimous understanding of human weakness displayed by the hound is unearthly.
Most users pointed out that the dog fully deserved a treat after the image was taken. Who knows, it might have even received the piece of ham on its face as a treat.
However, not all users tasted Roseman's trolling.
"He's got a slice of ham on his face, some twat owner sis [did] it to him, and how can it read that he's Ben [been] in a house fire, get real people that Think this is real....it's fake, and it's disgusting that the owners are saying he's been in a house fire!!!!!!! Stupid human owners!!!!!!!" Jill Hathaway-Hughes showed her disapproval in a comment.
For those unfamiliar with Internet lingo: you can tell that she has a very strong opinion on the issue by the generous amount of exclamation marks.
Other Facebook commenters were simply happy to show their support for the "injured" animal.
"What a sweet dog. Unconditional love. Praying for him," Darlene Fitzgerald said.
User Leah Gradwell even took the time to spell out what Roseman attempted to accomplish with his professional trolling skills.
"I think this post is hilarious, clearly the dog come to no harm and he is clearly making a point as to how pointless all this silly posts are that people share: "dont scroll past without typing amen" "facebook will donate $1 for every like" "the more shares we get and this child/animal will be saved". you have really made my day xx," Grandwell explained.
"I'm here to say. Your prayers worked miracles, the dog made a full recovery..." Stephen Roseman said, adding more fuel to the fire in a recent comment.
At the time of the writing, the viral image of the Hamdog was shared over 124,000 times and the picture got more than 72,000 likes.