‘They’re eating dogs’: JD Vance says he ‘has to create stories’ so media pays attention

Donald Trump’s running mate has made a startling admission about the infamous “eating dogs” conspiracy that has thrown the US into chaos.

In a surprise to absolutely nobody, the 2024 US election is getting weird. Fast.

Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, has charged full steam ahead into the controversy surrounding the former President’s claims that migrants in the US are eating household pets.

Despite denials from local officials and US fact-checkers, Vance has doubled-down on the narrative in a bizarre admission made in front of millions.

Appearing on talk shows around the US, Vance has continued to defend the story, arguing that traditional media outlets had been shying away from the issue of immigration and its effects on small communities until he and Trump raised it.

But recently, he alluded to making up the story simply to have the issue of immigration covered across the US media, claiming major outlets had “totally ignored this stuff”.

“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” Vance told CNN.

“It comes from first-hand accounts from my constituents. I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it.”

No matter which way you slice it, Vance is walking an agonisingly thin line with still-undecided voters by dropping phrases that sound dangerously like “I made it up” on national television.

Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, has charged full steam ahead into the controversy surrounding the former President’s claims that migrants in the US are eating household pets.

The pet-eating furore appeared to first begin when police in the town of Canton, roughly 280km from Springfield, released a bodycam footage of 27-year-old Allexis Ferrell being arrested after allegedly eating a cat.

After receiving multiple calls about the incident, police arrived at the scene and arrested Ferrell on animal cruelty charges.

She was charged with prohibitions concerning companion animal cruelty to animals and disorderly conduct.

According to a police report obtained by local news outlets, officers allege that Ferrell “smashed the cat’s head with her foot and then began to eat the cat”.

The officer says he saw blood on her feet and fur on her lips.

Ms Ferrell has no known connection to Haiti or any other foreign country.

From there, political opportunists ran with the story and turned it into a global news event. Amid the mud and muck of social media, it appears the narrative had changed Canton to Springfield due to the rising tension following the influx of some 15,000 Haitians to the are in recent years.

Videos titled “Haitian Woman Eats Neighbour’s Cat in Springfield” began popping up following Trump’s comments, but officials and police say they have not received reports of Haitians eating animals.

The pet-eating furore appeared to start when police in the town of Canton, roughly 280km from Springfield, released bodycam footage of 27-year-old Allexis Ferrell being arrested after allegedly eating a cat.

Ms Ferrell has no known connection to Haiti or any other foreign country.

Mayor Rob Rue told the BBC that Trump and Vance’s comments were hurting the town, claiming that there was no evidence to support the narrative.

“People’s pets are safe in Springfield, Ohio,” Rue told the BBC’s Newshour.

“We reached out to the JD Vance Campaign to let them know that we do not have any evidence that has happened, and I’ve made it known in multiple interviews that this is absolutely not true.”

“We need folks to understand, especially those that have a microphone that’s being listened to around the world, they need to understand the weight of their words and how it can negatively affect communities.”

Donald Trump has doubling down on on the claims.

Springfield has now become the centre of a lot of negative attention after being caught up in the US political maelstrom.

Last week, Wittenberg University had to cancel events after receiving a threat targeting its Haitian community, while three schools and several city buildings were evacuated due to security threats.

Springfield police also confirmed reports of the Proud Boys marching in the town, with videos circulating online of men carrying flags associated with the far-right group.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine slammed the rumours as “a piece of garbage that was simply not true”.

On ABC’s This Week, DeWine expressed concern over the spread of false information and its potential to harm communities.

While distancing himself from the Proud Boys, Vance doubled down on blaming Kamala Harris’s “open borders” policy for Springfield’s challenges, which have reportedly created a divide in the community.

Trump has also continued to escalate the rhetoric, promising “large deportations” from Springfield and across the country if re-elected.

The ugly run-on effects of the “dog-eating” saga have already begun sprouting up around the US.

Over the weekend, flyers claiming to be from the Ku Klux Klan demanding the “mass deportation” of foreigners have allegedly begun circulating in Springfield.

Vance has continued to defend the story, arguing that traditional media outlets had been shying away from the issue of immigration and its effects on small communities until he and Trump raised it.

The posters were purportedly made by the “Trinity White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan”, according to an image shared on X by Noah Lanard, a reporter with the left-wing magazine Mother Jones.

“What’s now being distributed in Springfield, according to a local pastor,” Lanard wrote.

The flyer declares in large font, “Foreigners & Haitians Out.”

It continues, “There is no place in America for this filth! We don’t need more police officers. We need MASS DEPORTATION. One quarter of Springfield is already in poverty. Now $2 million is being used to care for these beast of the fields. America first. Join us and stand against forced immigration.”

The flyer included a PO box address and a “Klanline” phone number.

The White House even warned recently that such rhetoric could lead to real-life dangers across the US, especially as tension mounts in the weeks counting down to the election.

“This kind of disinformation is dangerous because there will be people that believe it, no matter how ludicrous and stupid it is, and they might act on that kind of information and act on it in a way where somebody could get hurt,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

“So it needs to stop.”