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Images and rumours are cirulating that claim that Halloween night, October 31st, has been declared "National Kill a Pit Bull Day". The images also contain a message purportedly from somebody named Terry Jordan that apparently "declares" the day and describes possible weapons.

The rumour is totally false. In fact according to this article from the Marshal Democrat-News the message is likely targeting Councilman Terry Jordan who helped create a vicious animal ordinance earlier this year, which placed certain safety restrictions on pet owners. Initially making the ordinance specific to pit bull owners was a possibility but this notion was later dropped.

However this has nothing to do with any violence against pit bulls, and Councillor Terry Jordan certainly did not pen the message in the images nor the idea behind them. There is no "National Kill a Pit Bull Day". In fact according to Hoax-Slayer.com Mr. Jordan had fake social networking accounts made in his name which began to post the fake message.

However Halloween Night is a popular night for pranks and drunken antics, so keeping pets safely indoors during this night may not be the worst of ideas!

It is not recommended to circulate images or messages like this, especially without first verifying their content. These messages are dangerous as they spur Internet hate campaigns that can have very real consequences. Read our article on Internet hate campaigns and why they are dangerous here.


The Internet, and social networking sites like Facebook, are perfect platforms for spreading untruths, misinformation, rumor and propaganda. Thousands of inaccurate, exaggerated, deceptive or just plain false messages are circulated every single day.

For the anti-scam community to successfully tackle this plethora of false rumours, it is important that anyone who uses the Internet be able to identify false rumours and fully understands the possible consequences of spreading false information.

We have a two part blog post that helps provide this information. Part 1 deals with how to spot and debunk Internet rumours and Part 2 deals with the reasons why you should never circulate false information.

Additionally if you have fallen for this rumour or have Facebook friends that have, you can join our growing Facebook page here.