Claim:

In August 2025, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth publicly invested $5 million in a dog “healing sanctuary.”

Rating:

False

In August 2025, a rumor circulated online that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth invested $5 million in “Dogtopia,” allegedly a healing sanctuary for rescue dogs under development “just outside Tennessee.”

“We have training grounds, water play areas, 24/7 veterinary care — but above all, we have love,” Hegseth said according to one widely-circulated post that received more than 101,000 reactions on Facebook as of this writing (archived):

(Facebook user Liberty Protectors)

The post linked to an article (archived) from Aug. 19, 2025, that featured the headline: “BREAKING: Pete Hegseth Calls This Place “Dogtopia” — A 37-Acre Healiпg Saпctυary Sυpported by His \$5 Millioп Iпvestmeпt_HESU.” We reached out to the site that published the story, and will update this fact check if we receive a response.

It wasn’t the first site to make the claim. A webpage (archived) dated July 8, 2025, made the same assertion. However, both sites made a false claim. There is no evidence of Hegseth donated $5 million to a dog sanctuary. A DuckDuckGo search using the words “Hegseth dog sanctuary” displayed results for other Facebook posts and webpages, but no credible news outlet reported such a claim.

(duckduckgo.com)

As a public figure and prominent member of Trump’s Cabinet, such a public announcement by Hegseth — images featured above the story showed Hegseth making some kind of public announcement while holding a dog — would have appeared in credible news outlets.

Rather, the images allegedly depicting Hegseth were AI-generated. Other than the fact that a Google reverse image search failed to turn up results, we checked one such image with AI-detection software Hive, which determined the images were 100% likely to have been AI-generated.

(Facebook user @Liberty Protectors)

Coincidentally, a prominent company called Dogtopia boasts dozens of locations across the U.S. and Canada, but it appears to have no relation to Hegseth. When we contacted the company to confirm this, a representative wrote back, “Thank you for reaching out to gain clarity on this rumor. This exact rumor has circulated with other famous/infamous people depicted in the post. You are correct; it is untrue.”