Puppy Photo Theft on Facebook

A little bit more than a week ago a photo of our Leonberger Bronco taken when he was three months old was stolen and used without attribution. The thief, Valerie, was the founder and administrator of a new Leonberger Facebook group.  In addition, she changed his name and gender. Our breeder (well Bronco’s breeder) Julie Schaffert alerted me to the situation. I was unaware of the existence of this group. Julie knows this photo well since I’ve used it a lot on Facebook and Instagram as well as here. I think the worst part of it was that the thief manipulated the emotions of the members of the group by fabricating a story about the puppy being sick. What a dubious way to attract attention.

Photo of a Leonberger puppy wearing a red scarf.
Photo of Bronco at three months old. This photo was copied without permission and Bronco’s name and gender were changed.
The text says, “My Gracie is really sick please send some prayers for quick recovery”.
His name was certainly not Gracie, and the story about being sick was fabricated. BTW this kind of emotional manipulation has become ubiquitous. Don’t believe these kinds of claims.
Julie’s comment says, “This dog is not Gracie !! This is a stolen picture of Bronco a dog I bred!! I believe this page is a scam page.
This was Julie’s comment.

It is far from the only time I’ve had a dog photo stolen. I was (well still is) a member of a few pug groups and all of them except for one smaller group were photo theft groups. It seemed like the bigger the groups, the worse they were. The founders/administrators of the groups regularly stole the photos posted by the members and then used the Facebook approval feature to prevent the members from complaining about the situation. I had several photos of Daisy stolen.

The photo below was stolen dozens of times and passed around to several groups including groups I was not a member of. I accidentally discovered my photos in other pug groups that I was randomly browsing. Her name and gender were often changed, and it was perpetually her birthday for at least several months. She was congratulated thousands of times, which was a silver lining. At first, I played along and just said thank you to all the people congratulating her even though I was not the one who posted the photo. However, that became unsustainable as there were so many congratulations in so many places for so long and then one guy started accusing me of pretending it was my pug. Well, it was my pug. After a while I just gave up on the pug groups. It seemed to be the same problem everywhere.

Photo of Daisy’s 15th birthday. The photo was stolen dozens of times in various pug groups.

So why do people steal dog photos? It seems like in some cases it is for the purpose of selling stuff, but that is not always the case. It seems like some photo thieves just want to grow their groups and become “influencers”. I should say that one of my old on-line friends told me that he had a popular YouTube video downloaded and re-uploaded (stolen) several times. He was making money off that video so in that case it was a matter of theft of money. YouTube took down those videos when he reported them, but naturally he still lost some money.

This seems to be a problem that’s spreading like wildfire on social media. I did not use to see this, but now I see it all the time. Photo theft happens even in the beer groups I help administer. Apparently taking your own photo of a beer can is too much to ask for. Unfortunately, it seems like photo theft has become normalized behavior.

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

80 thoughts on “Puppy Photo Theft on Facebook”

  1. I’m sorry to hear that, Thomas! The thieves may think that there are hundreds of thousands of pet photos out there. What are the chances of the owners and photos owners claiming the copyright? You may have to put watermarks on your photos or sign your name across. There seems to be a way people can’t just copy it. There are photos with copyrights that have marks, some are large some are small.

    You can complain to Facebook about the theft.

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    1. Yes you are right. In the case of Daisy’s photos I probably only noticed a very small part of it. I think that what the Leonberger photo thief did not realize is that the Leonberger community is very small and many of us know each other. Despite 65.1 million American households having a dog there are only around 2,000 Leonbergers in North America. I know that because a dog magazine just contacted me today to point out that a statistics in one of my old posts from 2022 was outdated. They gave me the new statistics. That’s a tangent but I thought it was funny that it happened. There is apparently people checking dog statistics on blogs. Anyway, about complaining to Facebook, another Leonberger owner (not Julie) did that on my behalf and it appears that the group is gone. It is not really terrible for me, but I feel bad that so many people are being vicitms of emotional manipulation and asked to pray for dogs that don’t exist.

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      1. I understand how people manipulate others emotions for their own gain, Thomas! When I was in California, I joined the effort to save the monarch. I grew milkweed and raised monarchs the three year prior to moving to Portland, Oregon. After moving, I researched how to create a butterfly garden to attract monarch. The research showed the Pacific Northwest is not the monarch’s migration route. Yet there’s a person Ida Galash created a Facebook group called Portland Monarchs, making all kinds of posts about attrating monarch to Portland. She plants milkweed and other plants. She then would have plant sales. As late as this last June, people still asked her if it was late to plant wilkweed. On December 30, 2021, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) added monarch as endangered, but a group petitioned the listing and On December 30, 2021, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) the monarch from endangered to vulnerable on December 11, 2023. That person still used the 2021 announcement to manipulate people’s emotion. I think her followers just believe whatever she says. I don’t know if she had done any fundraising, but she went to a Monarch Conference in San luis Obispo, CA and reported on her Facebook. It’s all phony.

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    2. That’s an interesting story. Like you say “it’s okay she makes a business out of monarchs”. I agree with that. However, deception and manipulation of people’s emotions is not OK, especially if it involves money. People tend to believe what they see so it is very easy to get away with bogus stuff. People are emotional not rational. We all get facts wrong from time to time and information can be outdated, and when we find out we should update, but doing it on purpose to emotionally manipulate people that is not OK. Emotional manipulation is a little bit too easy to get away with.

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    1. I can see how you would have a big problem with photo theft. You have thousands of great pet photos people want to steal and so difficult to know when it happens. People have suggested watermark to me, but I may not have a big enough problem, but I’ll see. Thank you for the suggestion.

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    1. Well it was not so terrible for me. I am not making any money off my photos. But it is sad that millions of people are fooled my scammers using other people’s photos and then emotionally manipulating the readers. One woman on Facebook told me that someone stole her photo of her dog and used it to solicit “charitable” donations and it became a problem for her because people recognized her dog. She had to take it to the police.

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    2. Thank you so much Luisa. Scammer are indeed everywhere and some of them are quite dangeorus. Someone forged a few checks and stole more than $10,000.00 from our bank account. Luckily the bank reimbursed us and tried to catch the crooks.

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  4. I’m forever shocked by the things people do. I’m so sorry, Thomas. Bronco’s photo is iconic and easily recognized, so I’m surprised Valerie dared to use it. 🩵

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    1. Usually people get away with it. I think that Valerie probably did not know much about Leonbergers and how small the community is. There are only a few dozen breeders in North America and the breeders keep in contact with the dog owners. Valerie was probably surprised that she was caught.

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    2. I hope she learned the right lesson. If not she will, perhaps move onto pugs instead. It is a lot easier to trick people in the pug groups. There are so many more pug owners and the pug breeders don’t watch over the dog owners.

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  7. That’s pretty sad , I remember my fiance being hesistent to post pics of his husky puppy when we got her , for fear of people stealing pictures of her . She’s white and pretty small her for breed standard but very cute . I don’t know why people steal pictures like that . I’ve had a few of mine stolen for selling makeup , but I recognize my pictures , one site even used a picture of my face as well .
    Also Bronco looks super cuddly in that picture .

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    1. Wow! Stealing your photo is pretty bold but it is probabably common. The photo stealing administrators in the pug groups usually looked like photo models. That’s a tip off that people didn’t think about. In your case real money was involved and that is serious. I’ll bet your fiancees dog photos were stolen. It is very difficult to know about it. Thank you so much for your kind words about Bronco.

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      1. Yeah I need to file a complaint and also I’m looking into what I can actually do . It’s a possibly foreign website that does sell alot of the products that I review , but I didn’t give permission to them to use my photos or likeness .
        And yeah it’s crazy how people can just steal pictures . I guess I should stop being lazy and just start doing small watermarks . Even with my Doberman’s pictures too .

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    2. Yes when money is involved you need to protect yourself. I hope you can pursue them. If the foreign country is a European country, or a country like Australia, Canada, Japan, etc., they will probably cooperate with the US in such matters. If it is not you may be out of luck. I hope it all works out.

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  9. I am sorry for you that your photos were stolen.

    There isn’t any good reason to steal a photo, but wow, to aid a person in becoming an influencer! What in the world is wrong with the folks who do this? Do they not have any skills or education that would offer them a better way of life or a moral compass for that matter? Sigh…

    I hope they can never get new ones from you. Your photos are beautiful and you share them with such love.

    Thanks for sharing your story here.

    Kind regards,

    Michelle and Bella.

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    1. Yes I haven’t done anything. I was thinking since there is no money involved it is not so important. However, maybe I should do something (watermarks or something else) to protect the people who are being manipulated with the help of the photos. Thank you so much for your kind words Jacqui.

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    1. Yes it is the way it has become on social media. My daughter, who knows some influencers, told me that people / wanna-be-influncers steal photos all the time without hesitation. They collect lots of photos for what ever site they need them for without ever asking. None of them think it is wrong to steal pictures. It’s part of the culture and it’s the competition. She was laughing at my naivite.

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    1. I agree with you. Valerie (if that is her/his real name) must have been surprised. Our breeder has been so helpful with a lot of things throughout the years. She is still paying attention to us 17 years later despite that Bronco has passed away.

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  14. Disgraceful .. Why do people have to be so dishonest… I am pleased this was spotted and called out and to your attention Thomas… And the breeder of Bronco what integrity she has..
    We certainly need more integrity and honesty in our world right now…

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    1. Thank you Sue. I agree, Julie has a lot of integrity and she and the other LCA certified Leonberger breeders are doing a lot to protect the dogs and their owners before and after purchase and far beyond. No Leonberger bought from an LCA breeder ends up in a shelter. It’s a community. I wish it was the same for all dogs.

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  15. Chaplin: “This happened to Dennis years ago when a page called Vizsla360 took a picture where Dennis was sitting in a pile of blankets and pillows and other destruction and used it on one of their posts! Dennis just went and commented on the post about ‘Hey look it’s a picture of me!’ and we never heard anything from them …”

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  16. Theft of someone else’s work in any form is a pretty despicable act. I’ve read stories of books being stolen and being sold under new titles via Kindle.

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    1. That is serious. Dog photo theft is annoying but there’s no money involved (at least not on my end) but stealing books and republishing that’s serious. I hope those people were caught. A friend of mine (Bob) made a successful YouTube video that was making good money for him, and some people were downloading it and then reuploading it, basically stealing his money. They were caught and banned from YouTube. One of them was angry and said that it was a mistake and demanded that Bob rescind his complaint. Well, that was not going to happen.

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    1. Thank you Denise. It is difficult to know whether you dog photos have been stolen. I accidentally ran into pug groups with Daisy’s photo (in addition to photos being stolen in the groups I was in). But how many groups was her picture in without my knowledge? It could be dozens, hundreds. They do this all the time and get away with it.

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  18. I’m sorry that you had to deal with photo theft multiple times. I’m glad that Julie brought it to your attention and that you were able to take the post down. It seems like watermarking is a must have with thieves like these!

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    1. Yes Julie is really helpful with many things. The Leonberger dog breeders are amazing and really care about the dogs they sell. I did not have to do anything. Another Leonberger owner reported them/her and I did nothing myself to close that site.

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    1. Well, there was no money involved. It is annoying but not too bad for me. I felt sorry for the people who were emotionally manipulated by the scammers using my photos. Now I know that whenever I see “pray for my dog”, “it is my birthday but no one wishes me….”, I know it is a scam. Worse, there are people who get commericail items stolen, such as my friend Bob, whose YouTube video was downloaded and reuploaded several times. That’s worse because they took his income. Luckily YouTube removed those copy-videos and banned the users who did it.

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  22. Sorry to hear about this crappy experience Thomas. This kind of stuff goes on a lot unfortunately, I have spotted my photos on other sites maybe 3-4 times since I launched Leighton Travels in 2019. On one occasion a photo of mine had been used by another blogger! It makes me wonder how many times a photo has been used without me even being aware of it. The way the woman used your photo was particularly misleading and manipulative, shame on her. Her reputation in that group will now be shattered which she truly brought on herself.

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    1. Unfortunately photo theft is extremely common and I’ll bet that your photos have been stolen hundreds of times without you knowing. This woman was the founder/administrator of the group. Unfortunately, it is very common on Facebook that it is the founders/administrators of the groups that do the stealing. Then they use the post/comment approval feature to shut out people who notice the problem. It is all backwards. Luckily, in this case Facebook removed the group after another Leonberger owner reported her. The Leonberger community have each others backs.

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