Chipotle debunks the viral rumor that it will close all locations because it serves dog and cat meat

If you've seen some disturbing Chipotle news floating around Twitter, never fear: Chipotle is not closing all of its locations within the next year.

Twitter account @conspiracystory, which is seemingly dedicated to posting any and all conspiracy theories it can find or create, posted a tweet on Tuesday reporting that all Chipotle locations will close by March 2016.

As of Thursday at 9:30 a.m., the tweet had been retweeted more than 5,000 times and liked more than 3,000 times.

Many people who shared the tweet seemed to believe the rumor was true. 

 While some Twitter users despaired, most were savvy enough to respond with skepticism.

 

 

 

Chipotle definitively shut down the rumor on Wednesday night.

The tweet, a @conspiracystory original as noted by the account's watermark on the image, draws from a story published on fake news website Huzlers in November 2014, titled "Chipotle Exposed for Using Dog and Cat Meat in Food; Will Close Soon." The tweet directly quotes one sentence of the Huzlers article, but updates the year the Chipotle locations are slated to close to 2016.

A few of the thousands of users who stumbled across the tweet may have been further confused by Chipotle's recent e. Coli scare that resulted in the company closing all 43 locations in Seattle and Portland, Oregon after a number of customers became ill.

No link has been established between the e. Coli outbreak and any individual Chipotle ingredient. The company is now reopening the locations in question, after replacing all ingredients, testing employees for E. coli, and implementing additional safety measures at all 2,000 restaurants across the US.