What was claimed
The owner of two missing dogs is seeking help to be reunited with their pets.
Our verdict
These posts are hoaxes. The dogs were found in Wolverhampton and have been in the care of an animal charity since March.
Series of posts supposedly looking for missing pets are hoaxes
Posts claiming to be from the owner of two missing dogs, and appealing for help finding their pets, have been shared in Facebook community groups for different locations across the UK.
One post shared in a group for residents of Nottingham says: “URGENT!! #Nottingham To whomever posted this picture please please please contact me, these are my 2 dogs that I’ve been desperately looking for every day since they ran away on Monday . I found the photo of them in the photos but can’t seem to find the post of it on the page for some reason. Please help me find my dog. BUMP THIS POST”.
The same photo, with similar text but a changed location, has been shared in local groups for Bolton, Liverpool and the Isle of Wight.
But the image featured in the posts was not taken in any of these locations. A reverse image search shows that it was published in a March 2025 BBC News story about two Belgian Malinois found tied to a tree in Wolverhampton.
Rescued by staff from the Birmingham Dogs Home charity, the two dogs—who have since been named Mia and Tia—were last month reported to be well on the road to recovery, and Mia is currently listed on the charity’s website as available for adoption.
We’ve written many times about these kinds of hoax posts, which may use reports of missing or injured dogs, missing elderly people or children, or criminals on the loose.
Our 2023 investigation into these types of hoax posts found they’re often edited later to include links to surveys, freebies or cheap housing. In February, we found these hoax posts continue to be an issue, with at least 47 communities across the UK being victim to nine different hoaxes we fact checked that month.
Hoax posts like these can overwhelm and eclipse genuine information on local community groups. We’ve written to Meta asking the company to take stronger action in response to this problem.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because the two dogs pictured were actually rescued by staff of an animal charity in Wolverhampton in March.