On July 24, Good Good Good published an article reporting on the story of a TikTok influencer, Jaime Simpson, seemingly rescuing a tortoise from a pet shop dumpster.
In the original video, which has since been taken down by the creator, Simpson and her partner could be seen sifting through trash and debris in the dumpster and uncovering a baby tortoise in a small plastic container.
“I think it’s alive,” Simpson gasped in the video. “No, it’s definitely moving. They literally threw out an animal.”
“Who would do that?” She asked. “Oh, look at him. He’s so scared.”
The video quickly went viral, garnering more than 5.5 million views before it was eventually taken down. Simpson also initially posted a follow-up video within 24 hours of the first, sharing that they had plans to re-design a luxury dog crate into a tortoise habitat and make him the “most spoiled tortoise in the world.”
Two days after both videos were posted, speculation grew online about the validity of Simpson's story.
On July 25, TikTok user Dan Roselli (@dantheturtleman) posted a video (part 1, part 2) saying that he was in direct contact with the pet shop at the heart of the story. According to Dan, the pet shop denied any involvement in the matter and said that their tortoises are not marked in any way, even though the tortoise that was pulled from the dumpster had a red mark on its shell.
The pet shop then shared screenshots of direct messages between them and a local breeder who sells exotic tortoises and marks their shells with a red dot. According to the messages, the breeder told the pet shop that they had sold a hybrid leopard tortoise to a customer named Jaime Simpson a week prior to Simpson's video being posted.
In what appeared to be direct messages between the pet shop and Simpson, she denied the claim, saying: “Maybe they had another Jaime Simpson, but it wasn't me and this video was taken awhile ago. I actually have proof that I was in the hospital for a while in between.”
Simpson has since taken down both the original video and her follow-up update. Good Good Good reached out to Simpson for a statement, and she has not responded as of July 27.
Good Good Good’s corrections policy is that our journalists publicly correct factual mistakes when we learn about them. While we cannot independently verify that this video was false, we cannot feel confident about the facts originally presented. Therefore, we have taken down the original article and added a correction.
We believe good news should be held to the same high standard as any other reporting.
Featured Image: Screenshot via @embracingecho/TikTok
