According to this circulating report, a Norwegian woman has given birth to a baby elephant. The report claims that, after the ‘half-human/half-elephant hybrid’ baby was born, millions of Hindus began a pilgrimage to ‘Norwegia’ to see the child. Supposedly, many Hindu practitioners believe that the child could be a reincarnation of the deity Ganesha.
The report features an image supposedly depicting the ‘elephant baby’.
But, of course, the report is utter nonsense. No such hybrid birth – or subsequent pilgrimage – has occurred. The bogus story comes via the fake-news satire website Huzlers. Nothing published on Huzlers should be taken seriously.
The site includes the following disclaimer in the footer of its pages:
Huzlers.com is a combination of urban news and satirical entertainment to keep its visitors in a state of disbelief.
The image used in the report is, in fact, an art piece created by the Australian artist Patricia Piccinini. Piccinini is renown for creating strange and fanciful animal-human hybrid sculptures. A picture of another of her sculptures, which depicts a hybrid-human mother and her suckling babies, has been featured in other Internet hoax messages.
It is wise to check any ‘news’ stories that come your way before you share or forward them to others.
Example
A Norwegian Woman Gives Birth To Baby Elephant!
Norwegia – Millions of Hindis everywhere have begun a pilgrimage to Norway after a Norwegian couple recently gave birth to a half-human/half-elephant hybrid that many Hindu practitioners believe to be the reincarnation of the popular deity Ganesha.
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
