Cesar Millan is Not Dead: Dog Whisperer Death Hoax Circulates

A story circulating online claims that Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan died of a heart attack. That report, however, is false.

Death Hoax

In a report published by Unam Noticias, we read that Millan died in a Santa Clarita hospital of a heart attack. The story states that Millan’s death was announced by his wife at a press conference. The article, as of this writing, has received nearly 20,000 shares online.

The report, however, is not true. That website apparently only publishes fake news, as indicated by its “about” section, written in Spanish.

Some shocked readers shared the sad news on social media, without first verifying the claims in the report. Neither Millan nor his representatives initially responded to the death hoax (see below for the eventual responses). Even before Millan’s response, there were several factors which indicated the article is not true.

Consider:

• The original report did not cite any sources.
• No legitimate media outlets reported Millan’s death
• There is no evidence that Millan’s wife held a press conference
• The story on Unam Noticias is rife with grammatical and spelling errors (example: “Millan was hospitalize yesterday afternoon, the medical reports indicate that he suffered a fulminate heart attack, which paralyze his heart unavailable for the blood…”
• Unam Noticias is a website which publishes satire

Millan Responds

Hours after the fake report went viral, Millan’s Facebook page posted an update, debunking the story:

“Reports of my Pack Leader’s untimely demise are greatly exaggerated. I can happily report he is safe, happy and healthy. I can also tell you he kept me up all night snoring, my breakfast was a little late but I did get a great morning walk. As Cesar keeps telling me: Exercise. Discipline. Affection. – the key to a long, balanced, and healthy life!”

On December 5, 2014, Millan posted a short video on his Vine account in which he simply stated, “Well, I am alive.”

Bottom Line

The report claiming that Cesar Millan died of a heart attack is yet another celebrity death hoax. The poorly-written source of this report was a satirical post from a (mostly) Spanish-language website. Millan has issued responses via his Facebook and Vine accounts.

Updated December 5, 2014