Fact check: Claims of people feeding deer meth, training them to attack hunters began as satire

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The claim: People are feeding meth to deer and teaching them to attack hunters

An April 24 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows a mugshot of a woman and a picture of a deer standing on a sofa.

“Bridgette Watkins, 43, of Summit, AR who allegedly took fawn’s into her home and raised the deer with the intentions of training them to attack hunters was taken into custody Friday,” the post says. “At the time of the arrest Watkins was in possession of several grams of meth, four deer and many stolen broken electronics. Attention was drawn to Watkins when she began giving meth to the young deer and they were caught rummaging through people’s garages and back porches."

The post was shared more than 700 times in three days. Posts describing similar incidents, sometimes in other locations, were also shared on Facebook.

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Our rating: False

The story originated on a satirical Facebook page with a name similar to a government agency in Arkansas. The photos accompanying the post are from news coverage of unrelated incidents in other locations.

Claim originated on satirical page

The posts all repeat or slightly alter a purported news release posted April 23 on a Facebook page called "Arkansas Fish Game."

The page describes itself as “a satire page just for laughs” and uses a profile picture and a name similar to a real state agency – the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

Keith Stephens, a spokesperson for the commission, said the announcement is not authentic and it is not the first time postings from the satire page have been taken as real on social media. The agency has received several calls from people wondering if posts from the account were accurate.

“Our main concern is that people who start using that can start thinking it is official information from the Game and Fish Commission,” Stephens said.

The viral claim is an example of "stolen satire," in which made-up claims published and labeled as satire are reposted in a way that makes them appear to be legitimate news. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, as was the case here.

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While many of the posts circulating repeat the original post verbatim, some change the details of the purported incident. But all the posts include several identical details, including that the suspect was discovered after someone followed the deer back to a house, that the deer was rummaging through a garage and that the suspect was discovered while wearing a duct tape bikini.   

The photographs often accompanying the post are from unrelated incidents in other locations. The mug shot of the woman used in many of the posts shows a woman who was arrested with more than a half-pound of methamphetamine in Indiana. The picture of the deer came from an incident in Canada where a doe jumped through a window and had to be led out of a home.