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Facebook never lets the facts get in the way of a good story. From AI-created videos without context to pages built on completely fake tales about the Denver Broncos, there’s no limit to the mental corruption going on.
Still, we couldn’t resist that recent slew of Facebook and Instagram posts claiming that a Colorado school went into lockdown after mistaking a fat orange cat for a mountain lion.
Several of the posts on social media had the same message, or something very similar to it: “A Colorado school went into lockdown after staff reported a mountain lion on campus — but it was just an unusually large domestic cat. The mix-up caused temporary panic but no injuries. Authorities confirmed the cat posed no threat and safely returned it to its owner. Students and staff are now sharing the story online, adding humor to the incident.”
Some of the accounts sharing the posts have large followings. Sociaty, a social media outlet that claims to be the “home of entertainment, news and pop culture,” shared the post to its 405,000 followers on Facebook, and so did an Instagram influencer with 530,000 followers. Animal World, a Facebook page with nearly 200,000 followers that claims to be full of”intriguing facts and heartwarming stories” as well as “educational content,” posted something about the alleged incident, but with a lot more words that still provided no further information.
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The most enteraining example came from Science & Astronomy, which has over 683,000 followers. Science & Astronomy’s post offers the same story with a whole lot of nothing, but also comes with a random promotion to check out a shady astronomical website, as well as thought-provoking statements in the comments section about how “woke” our school system is.
None of the posts or pages mentioned anything about parody news. Several other accounts and social media groups also posted the story. But did it really happen?
If your principal thought a local Garfield was a fearsome puma and shut down the school, you would never forget it — and neither have social media parasites with big followings and shitty ethics, because this never happened. Not in Colorado, at least.
We couldn’t find any reports of a Colorado school being locked down over an alleged mountain lion sighting, nor was anything spotted on social media from people claiming to have first-hand knowledge. What we did find were nearly identical social media posts, photos and all, about a 2023 incident in Washington in which Moses Lake School District officials also mistook a fat cat for a mountain lion. Credible details are light regarding this encounter, too, but a local NBC affiliate report backed up the reports, describing an end to the confusion after the “school then learned the alleged mountain lion was a ‘fat cat eating a rat.'”
Social media pages like Sociaty and Animal News are always thirsty for more content and engagement, and don’t usually vet (or care to vet) the information they regurgitate from other accounts. The never-ending pipeline of repurposed news is part of a need to stay relevant in algorithms that dictate Facebook and Instagram feeds, and this case provides a good window into how the truth often gets twisted like a schoolyard tale…and how susceptible millions of people are to it.
But hey, this is Colorado. If not a puma, someone will mistake a fat cat for a bear soon enough.
