According to a rumor that circulated online in December 2025, country singer Dolly Parton had opened a new animal sanctuary in her home state of Tennessee called “Pet Haven.”
A Facebook page called Neon Country Lights claimed (archived) the center, based “right in the heart of the Smoky Mountains,” consisted of a “4,000-square-meter paradise featuring a full veterinary clinic, separate play zones for dogs and cats, cozy home-like rooms, and a ‘Foster to Forever’ program personally funded by Dolly, covering all costs for new adopters during the first six months.”
The post included an image purportedly showing Parton cutting a ribbon outside a building with a sign that read: “Dolly Parton’s Pet Haven.”
Its caption began: “BREAKING FROM TENNESSEE: Dolly Parton has officially opened ‘Pet Haven’ — a forever home for hundreds of abandoned animals, right in the heart of the Smoky Mountains!”
Other Facebook users also shared the claim (archived, archived). The posts featured links leading to articles hosted by WordPress blogs, or similar sites, such as one advertisement-filled story hosted on a Vietnam-based website. Snopes has previously reported on artificial intelligence slop “news stories” often linking to websites based in Vietnam. This particular website featured a “Sample Page” (archived) showing its creator what to write on the site and recommending the page be deleted. Such pages would not likely appear on authentic news media websites.
Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo uncovered no news media outlets reporting about Parton’s alleged “Pet Haven” rescue center (archived, archived, archived, archived). Due to the singer’s worldwide fame, the story likely would have garnered media attention if it were true.
Rather, whoever authored the story fabricated the entire tale as one of hundreds of inspirational tales that depicted celebrities and athletes performing inspiring acts of kindness. They aimed to earn advertising revenue on websites linked from the aforementioned Facebook posts.Â
Given the above, we have rated this claim as false.Â
Snopes contacted Parton’s management team for comment on the story and await a reply. We also reached out to a manager of the Neon Country Lights Facebook page to ask them about the claim. We will update this article if we receive more information.
The image accompanying the Neon Country Lights post contained signs it was generated using AI software. For example, a man in the background wearing a dark baseball cap had legs but either had no feet or his lower legs were distorted (the image was pixelated, so it was difficult to tell) and the woman to the right of him in the picture, holding her hands in the air, also had a distorted face.
The woman resembling Parton in the foreground had a fuller face than recent authentic videos (archived, archived) of the country singer showed, plus the woman’s face featured a pronounced dimple on her right cheek that was not visible in contemporary videos and photos on Instagram. The image also showed the fake Parton ready to cut a ribbon, though the positioning of the scissors suggested she would cut directly through her own thumb rather than across the ribbon.
Several other onlookers also had oddly shaped arms and hands, classic telltale signs of AI use in photos, and the appearance of some of the animals did not pass the sniff test.
Though the story resembled glurge, which Dictionary.com defines as “stories, often sent by email, that are supposed to be true and uplifting, but which are often fabricated and sentimental,” Parton has supported animal charities in real life. For example, profits from her Doggy Parton line of pet products support Willa B. Farms, a real animal rescue organization in Old Hickory, Tennessee.Â
For further reading, Snopes previously investigated whether Parton declined the Presidential Medal of Freedom three times and whether she became the legal guardian of an abandoned newborn baby.
