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| - In June 1951, a man did jump into the La Brea Tar Pits in an attempt to rescue a dog that had wandered into them.
The photo being shared alongside the story did not show the man in the aftermath of the rescue. This photograph depicted the aftermath of another incident in 1951, when a real estate broker was abducted, assaulted and “doused with syrup and feathers, like a tar-and-feathering,” according to newspaper archives. Further, some details in the social media posts about the tar pits incident were not accurate, including the name of the man and the assertion that the dog survived.
In the tar pits incident, it was not clear whether the dog belonged to the man.
In January 2026, social media users shared a story about a man, Grady Johnson, who allegedly jumped into Los Angeles' La Brea Tar Pits in June 1951 to save his dog. The posts included a photograph purportedly depicting the aftermath of the rescue. The picture, according to the posts, showed Johnson covered in hardened tar.
For example, one Facebook page said (archived) Johnson's dog "slipped through the deceptively solid surface and vanished into the ancient asphalt," and, without thinking, Johnson leapt after him, "plunging into a substance that had claimed countless animals over more than 50,000 years." The caption claimed that emergency crews pulled Johnson and his dog free and that the pair were "shaken but unharmed." Referencing the photo, the Facebook page wrote:
The image that emerged afterward was as haunting as it was iconic: Grady standing upright, entirely coated in hardened tar, resembling a fossil unearthed from deep time. In that single frame, devotion, danger, and survival were frozen together, a testament to the lengths love can drive a person.
The picture and iterations of the story appeared elsewhere on Facebook and Instagram.
La Brea Tar Pits is an active fossil dig site that is part of the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County. Located in LA's Hancock Park neighborhood, the naturally occurring tar pits have preserved the fossils of pre-historic animals.
In short, a man did jump into the La Brea Tar Pits in June 1951 in an attempt to rescue
True story behind June 1951 incident
On June 25, 1951, Los Angeles area newspapers, such as the Los Angeles Times, Pasadena Star-News and Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, reported on an incident the previous day involving a man jumping into the tar pits after a dog.
The LA Times wrote a "curious little dog yesterday sniffed the edges of the La Brea Pitts. Then fearlessly it stepped into the murky blackness." The newspaper then said three boys jumped a fence intending to rescue the dog, "but just as they were to plunge in after the animal," a 42-year-old man, Jack Young (not Grady Johnson), "leaped into the tar to scoop up the dog."
(The Los Angeles Times)
According to the report, the boys then "held a long stick" out to the man and pulled him to safety, along with the canine.
Medics took Young to a hospital to treat his injuries, and the dog "died en route" to an animal shelter, according to the newspaper archives.
Details in other newspaper reports matched the LA Times' story, which included a photo caption saying the incident occurred "yesterday" (June 24, 1951).
The reputable image repository Getty Images contained at least four photos of the incident's aftermath; one depicting emergency service workers carrying a tar-covered Young away on a stretcher, two showing nurses removing the tar from his body and another featuring the boys with the dog.
The dates and names in the Getty Images captions matched those in the newspaper reports.
(Getty Images)
Story behind photo in social media posts
The picture in social media posts was authentic, depicting a man standing upright and covered in what some users suggested was "hardened tar." However, it was not from the 1951 La Brea Tar Pits incident.
Reverse image searches revealed that the photograph has circulated online since at least 2013. It has been attached to a variety of claims.
The photo could also be found on Getty Images. According to its caption, the picture depicted a different event that took place months earlier, in February 1951, also in Los Angeles. Getty's caption read:
Apparently a case of mistaken identity even before the syrup-and-feather treatment, real estate broker Charles S. Smith said three men mistook him for somebody else, held him prisoner in a house trailer for three days and nights, and then did this to him. Dr. Ernest Fogelberg (left) and Dr. R.E. Faylor at the Tri-City Emergency Hospital treated the 49-year-old man for mild shock and administered a good scrubbing.
The Redwood City Tribune reported on the assault in its Feb. 23, 1951, edition. The story stated that the real estate broker was "found doused with syrup and feathers, like a tar-and-feathering."
According to the paper, three men accused Smith of operating a "rental racket" and then assaulted, bound, starved and robbed him. They reportedly returned him to his office two days after the initial attack, where "they stripped him, poured syrup over him and rubbed feathers into the sticky covering." Smith maintained he was "not engaged in the rental business" and "had never seen any of them before."
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