“Just pierced my cats[sic] ears,” Jamie Johnson’s Facebook post read, “He was bleeding and scratching all the way through. But he seems fine now.” The image of an anxious white kitten with infected ear piercings had gone viral. Infuriated animal lovers worldwide demanded that Johnson be found and severely punished. But no one could locate her. In fact, Johnson didn’t even exist – it was a hoax.
The kitten image was traced back to a string of 2008 animal cruelty cases committed by Pennsylvanian pet groomer, Holly Crawford. In 2010, Crawford was sentenced to six months home detention for selling ‘Gothic Kittens’ with piercings and docked tails on eBay. Crawford is currently serving time behind bars for the 2014 double murder of Ronald Evans, 73, and his son Jeff Evans, 43.
Caught in the middle of this hoax is Brittany Wright, 18, a bubbly blonde babysitter from Dallas, Texas. Her own pictures were stolen and used as ‘Jamie Johnson’.
“I have no idea who’s behind it,” Wright admits in exasperation.
For five years, fake profiles using Wright’s identity have been circulating the Internet. She says although she’s become used to it, this time they had crossed the line, “This was animal abuse and it was horrible! I don’t want to put my face on that.”
An animal lover herself, Wright’s family and friends rallied to get the picture deleted. “I was disgusted by the whole thing. I just wanted it gone!”
Weeks had passed before Facebook finally decided to remove the picture. But for Wright, the damage had already been done, “I’ve had people coming to me, threatening me... I don’t want people shunning me for something I didn’t do! There was nothing I could do, so it made me really upset. It’s impacted me pretty bad.”
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