Talk about a lie is halfway around the world before the truth has even pulled its boots on.

If you search the #romania hashtag on Twitter at the moment, you will notice that one subject in particular dominates the conversation: stray dogs. Specifically, the search is dominated by desperate people pleading for the ‘Romanian dog massacre’ to stop. This renewed social media assault on reason was sparked by the Romanian Constitutional Court (CCR) yesterday declaring that a new law allowing stray dogs to be put down was constitutional.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, the law will allow local councils to implement best-practice stray dog policies, based on the premise that once caught, strays will no longer be released back on to the streets. They will either be adopted, housed indefinitely in pounds or humanely put down. This policy is much the same as those used with great success in the UK and throughout the EU.

Unfortunately, many dog lovers have got their knickers in a twist and their facts wrong, and have allowed themselves to be convinced by the Romanian dog NGOs that a brutal, bloody massacre of Romania’s dogs is happening right now. One of the more deluded tweets we have seen today is this one, complete with a photo of what is apparently going on in Romania as we speak:

Please show people EXACTLY what is happening in ROMANIA right now!! Poor scared, defenceless dogs 😦 @PeterEgan6 pic.twitter.com/1lA8OUbkVl — Amanda Shewan (@Amandashewan) September 26, 2013

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When we pointed out the photo was clearly of somewhere in Asia, we were told that did not matter.

@bucharestlife @PeterEgan6 ok say this picture isn't from Romania this is still going on in Romania right now, read the news — Amanda Shewan (@Amandashewan) September 26, 2013

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For the umpteenth time, there is no stray dog massacre going on in Romania.

Anyway, the award for today’s daftest tweet (for its less than subtle hint of racism) goes to this one:

@AlanLeeArtist @PeterEgan6 @Amandashewan We the English love our dogs , these Romanians will be on our doorstep 1st Jan hide your dogs — Dollybag (@DollybagLondon) September 26, 2013

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Yep, that’s right. Apparently, come January 1st, 2014, Romanians are heading en bloc to Britain not just to steal everybody’s homes, jobs and claim billions of pounds in benefits, but they are also coming to kill Britain’s dogs.

‘Hide your dogs, the Romanians are coming.’

You couldn’t make it up.