This story about a PETA protester ‘tied to a tree with duct tape by bikers’ originated on a satirical website

The photo was published in this Facebook post, published on August 10, 2019, on a Facebook page entitled "I’ll stand by Tony Abbott", which has more than 34,000 followers.

It has been shared more than 200 times.

The caption states: “This is how the police found one of three missing PETA protesters who chose a biker rally to whine about leather usage.”

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:

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The same photo was shared hundreds of thousands of times after being published on Facebook here, here, and here with a similar claim.

It was also published on Twitter here and here with a similar claim. 

The claim is false; the story originated on a satirical website.

A reverse image search on Google for the photo in the misleading posts and a subsequent keyword search found this archived article published by Glossy News on January 7, 2010.

Glossy News identifies itself as a satirical site on its “Terms of use” page here.

Below is a screenshot of the Glossy News article:

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An identical satirical story was published here by The Spoof On January 3, 2010.

According to its website, "The Spoof is a fabricated satirical newspaper and comedy website published by Spoof Media Ltd." 

The articles both state the incident happened during a biker rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

The articles state police searched for three animal rights protestors who went missing after “attempting to protest the wearing of leather at a large motorcycle gang rally this weekend.” 

This article published on January 24, 2010, by Johnstown newspaper, The Tribune-Democrat, stated there was no substance to the story after it received “dozens of enquiries”.

The same photo was also debunked by US-based fact check site Snopes here.