Home
  
Leao, the grieving dog, pictured next to a grave in Brazil following the floods, does not exist.
UAE News.Net
Wednesday 2nd February, 2011
The picture that became a sensation on the Internet showing a dog called Leao who refused to leave his owner’s grave in the wake of the Brazil flooding, is actually a picture of the cemetery worker’s dog, according to the World Society for the Protection of Animals.
Big News Network contacted the WSPA Brazil to find out more information about Leao after he struck a chord with our readers, as he’s done across the Internet after his story was told by numerous news outlets.
The famous picture in question shows a male medium-sized brown cross-breed dog sitting beside an unmarked grave in the middle of a cemetery in Teresopolis, the cemetery is pock-marked by newly-dug graves, adding to the sense of loss and devastation that the picture evokes.
The UK’s Daily Mail, Metro and the Mirror, and America’s Orlando Sentinel, KHQ Spokane and CNN, as well as countless other news outlets, all covered the story.
The dog had reportedly belonged to Cristina Maria Cesario Santana, who died in Teresopolis during the floods that have ravaged the region.
What made the story all the more moving was the fact that Leao had refused to leave his owner’s grave for several days. However, Big News Network has learnt that Leao does not exist and the story is, according to WSPA Brazil, “polemic”.
It is controversial, because, while the above-mentioned news outlets claim Leao is a grieving dog, a cemetery worker has confirmed he doesn’t exist.
In an attempt to find out more information about Leao, and get an update on his condition, Big News Network contacted the WSPA Brazil, who confirmed that he is not a homeless dog as was reported, but belongs to a cemetery worker in the city.
Rodolfo Júnior told local media outlets in Brazil that he is in fact the dog’s owner and that his dog was pictured lying next to the unmarked grave while he was working.
Rodolfo Junior claims his dog frequently accompanies him to work and is not sure who told the Getty/AFP photographer that he belonged to Cristina Maria Cesario Santana, or how the name Leao was attached to his dog.
The WSPA Brazil, which has no knowledge of a dog in the area called Leao, believes that it was a misunderstanding as there was a dog called Caramelo, who’d lost his family in the floods, and had been seen near the cemetery. However, he does not appear to have ever gone to any of the graves in the cemetery.
“This one did have a family who died because of the floods, but he never entered the cemetery. He has already been adopted and now lives with a new family,” a spokesperson for the WSPA Brazil told Big News Network.
The WSPA is currently trying desperately, along with many other animal rights groups, to save, shelter and rehome hundreds of animals left displaced by the floods in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state, following the worst floods in the country’s history.
“We know there are many animals living in deplorable situations... abandoned without food, and with injuries,” WSPA member Solange Ribeiro told the AFP in January, just after the floods had hit.
While the drama and topical nature of the catastrophic floods and mudslides in Brazil may be over, causing the disaster to fade from international headlines, the ongoing need for help, and the efforts to provide assistance to animals and humans, will remain for many weeks and months to come.
The Brazilian government has its hands full providing assistance to the thousands of people displaced by the disaster, leaving many injured and homeless, newly orphaned pets with no one to help them, but the WSPA and similar organisations.
“We know the priority is to save the lives of humans, but we will not abandon them,” says Ribeiro. We will not abandon them, this has been the predominant message of animal rescuers, working in some of the most dangerous conditions imaginable.
We will not abandon them.
A simple search on You Tube for animals that have saved humans from a variety of dangers, be it earthquakes, fires, wild animals or car crashes, reveals the extent to which they feel the same way.
They’ve shown before that they won’t abandon us, now the animal rights groups working in Brazil are asking humans to show the same...humanity.
Have your say on this story
|
|
