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Brazilian Dog Leao is Hoax
Leao, the Brazilian dog that reportedly remained at the grave of its owner for days after the funeral, is a hoax reports the Mayasia Sun.
The story of Leao along with the moving photo at left showing the dog seemingly standing guard at graveside went viral over the Internet. It was reported widely by many media outlets and blogs including McCafferty Himself and even CNN.
It seems that Leao is a fictional name for a dog that never really existed. The dog in the photo belongs to Rodolfo Júnior, a grave digger who works at a cemetary in Teresopolis, Brazil.
In interviews with local Brazilian media, Júnior states that his dog often accompanies him to work, and he does not know who took the photo of his dog at the newly dug, unmarked grave.
However, the photo was submitted to the media through the Getty/AFP network by a company photographer. Either the photographer misunderstood who the dog belonged to or deliberately misrepresented the story.
Hundreds of animals were displaced by the recent floods in the state of Rio de Janeiro according to the Brazilian branch of the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA). However, the WSPA knows of no dog named Leao among the displaced animals.
The WSPA did say that a dog named Caramelo did lose its family in the floods, but that dog has already been placed with a new owner.
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Loyalty Even After Death
Leao continues to sit at the grave of her owner, Cristina Maria Cesario Santana, who died in last week’s catastrophic landslides in Brazil. She has remained at the graveside for two days straight with no sign that she will give up her vigil.
Leao proves that dogs are loyal to a fault.
There are so many dead from the mudslides in Brazil that they have resorted to burying people in an assembly line fashion. I believe there were 655 dead just in Leao’s town alone.
