Cedar Hollow Ranch manager Vic Jones says reports that the missing Texas giraffe, Gracie, has been found safe are false.

Gracie disappeared nearly two weeks ago, Jones told MySA. Her owner is offering $5,000 for information leading to her rescue. Jones said he has even hired helicopters to try to find the animal as the search continues, but that efforts have been complicated by the need to search other ranchers’ property. 

Confusion spread online after the global news outlet The Guardian incorrectly stated that the animal was found safely following a community-wide search. The article appears to cite a local news outlet. 

“No, she has not been found. That’s just people having fun with the internet, getting their little one minute of fame,” Jones told MySA on Wednesday, June 24. 

The Real County Sheriff’s Office also told MySA that the animal has not yet been found. Jones noted that in the hours since news of Gracie’s disappearance first spread, a wave of AI-generated memes has flooded online discourse amid search efforts. 

The widespread attention is new to the ranch manager. “I told a friend of mine, ‘Now I know what the word ‘viral’ means,'” he told MySA.

After days of searching for Gracie on his own, with no luck, he says he initially contacted the sheriff’s office to see if they would help spread the word locally. He had no idea the New York Times would call him to talk about Gracie’s rounded ears and the $5,000 reward the owners have offered to help find the missing animal.

“What gets me is, you know, I just didn’t realize this was gonna happen. That everybody from here to Timbuktu, you know, was gonna have their two minutes in it,” he shared. “I just thought we’d get some help locally to find the giraffe. It’s different… Kind of hard for old country people to understand.” 

The Cedar Hollow Ranch manager said he believes the animal is somewhere out in the “rough terrain” surrounding Leakey, Texas, where she was last spotted on game cameras a few days ago. In all the different game-camera footage he’s seen of Gracie since the search, he says she appears to be healthy, keeping hope alive for those looking for her. 

“There’s a lot of food out there for her to eat. There’s plenty of water,” he said.