‘Eating the cats’: Truth about Trump’s disturbing migrant claim
Donald Trump sparked backlash for making an extraordinary claim about immigrants eating cats during last night’s debate. Here’s the truth about the rumour.
“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats.”
In a fiery debate that quickly devolved to insults and rambling tangents - Donald Trump’s extraordinary words about Haitian migrants in a small US town set the internet alight.
“They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame,” the former president continued.
As Kamala Harris shook her head and laughed, he added: “People are saying their dog was eaten by people”.
Debate moderator David Muir was quick to shut down the claim, quoting the town manager of Springfield, Ohio.
“He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” Muir said.
“Well, I’ve seen people on television,” Trump argued.
“The people on television say my dog was taken and used for food. So maybe he said that and maybe that’s a good thing to say for a city manager.”
So, how did a debunked social media rumour come to be repeated on the world stage by the former president of the United States?
Viral post on community Facebook group
The claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield are eating pets originated from a social media post first shared on a local community Facebook group.
“Warning to all about our beloved pets & those around us!! My neighbour informed me that her daughters friend had lost her cat,” the user, whose name has been blacked out, claimed.
“One day she came home from work, as soon as she stepped out of her car, looked towards a neighbours house, where Haitians live, & saw her cat hanging from a branch, like you’d do a deer for butchering, & they were carving it up to eat.
“I’ve been told they are doing this to dogs, they have been doing it at Snyder park with the ducks & geese, as I was told that last bit by Rangers & police. Please keep a close eye on these animals.”
The post was picked up by conservative users with huge followings on X and spread like wildfire online without a shred of evidence.
Springfield Police told the News-Sun they were aware of the social media post, but said it’s “not something that’s on our radar right now.”
Another local made a similar claim during a City Commission meeting on August 27.
“Bro, they’re in the park grabbing up ducks by their necks and cutting their heads off and eating them,” the 28-year-old claimed, imploring the commission to rein in the migrants.
Earlier this week, conservative outlet the Federalist shared audio of a call made to a police from a man who claimed to have seen a group of Haitian migrants allegedly carrying four geese in Springfield.
“I’m sitting here. I’m riding on the trail. I’m going to my orientation for my job today, and I see a group of Haitian people. There was about four of ‘em. They all had geese in their hands.”
The man who took the photo said he was outraged that “right-wingers … will take a random picture from the internet and use it as a weapon to further their agenda”.
“I wish I never took it, for sure. And I hate that the picture that I took is being weaponised to use against immigrants, or really, any other group. They always have to have somebody to use as a weapon. Some group to be the bad guy,” he told the Columbus Dispatcher.
Viles Dorsainvil, the president of Springfield’s non-profit Haitian Community Help and Support Center, raged about the “racist” amplification of the rumours.
“It’s just bigotry, discrimination and racism,” he told NBC News.
“There is a group of people who have been fabricating some news just to denigrate Haitians.”
He said his organisation was dedicated to helping Haitian immigrants who had fled gang warfare in their home country and were eager to find work.
“They are looking for a place to raise their family and look for a job. But it happens that the city has not been prepared for the influx of Haitians coming here,” he said.
‘She was eating it’: Disturbing viral arrest video
Chilling footage of a woman being arrested after allegedly killing and eating a cat was also seized by conspiracists – despite it taking place in Canton, 275 kilometres from Springfield.
The woman in the arrest video, Allexis Telia Ferrell, was born in America – not Haiti.
“The suspect in this case is not a Haitian immigrant,” Ohio police spokesman Dennis Garren said, according to Reuters.
“She is a life long Canton resident.”
In the police bodycam clip, a police officer can be heard asking the woman “why did you eat the cat?”
“Did you eat that cat? Did you eat it? Why did you kill it?,” he continues.
A witness at the scene outside a housing development in Stark County tells police “we pulled up, and she was just laying there with it … she was eating it”.
Canton Police Department allege the 27-year-old woman stomped on a cat’s head and ate it “in a residential area in front of multiple people”.
Ferrell was charged with animal cruelty, including harming animals, violating laws pertaining to companion animals, and disorderly behaviour over the August 16 rampage.
She is still before the courts.
A middle-class town buckling under pressure
The blue-collar town of Springfield in southwestern Ohio has found itself at the centre of a divisive and often inflammatory debate about immigration in America in recent months.
It saw its population shrink from 80,000 in 1960 to under 60,000 in the latest 2020 census as it grappled with the closure of local manufacturing plants, the lifeblood of the community.
Springfield’s median income dropped 27 per cent from 1999 to 2014 – the steepest decline of any metropolitan city in the entire country, according to the Pew Research Centre.
The town was revitalised when Topre, a large Japanese auto parts manufacturer, built a new plant in the struggling town in 2017.
By 2020 Springfield was experiencing an unprecedented industrial boom with an estimated 8,000 new jobs on the table as other firms and companies moved in.
A wave of Haitian migrants – city officials estimate as many as 20,000 since the pandemic – flooded the town eager to make the most of the influx of manufacturing and warehouse jobs.
The Haitians, who have social security numbers and work permits under the federal temporary protected status program, overwhelmed the underprepared infrastructure in the town.
City officials say the rapid population surge put a huge strain on health care, housing and education resources in the area.
Things took a dark turn when a mini-van, being driven by a Haitian immigrant with a foreign license, veered into oncoming traffic and struck a packed school bus.
An 11-year-old boy was killed and 23 kids were injured.
The incident fuelled anti-migrant sentiment in the town, with furious residents storming the first City Commission meeting after the crash.
“How do you know we aren’t getting criminals, rapists?” one man asked, according to the NY Times.
“Who can stop them from coming here?” probed another.
Racist undercurrent behind false rumours
Springfield has long been a largely white city - 70 per cent of residents were white as of 2022, according to Data US, compared to 17 per cent black and 5 per cent Hispanic.
But that white majority has been declining over the last 10 years - slowly but steadily - while minorities have been growing, The NY Post reported.
Some social media commenters have said the claims of Haitian immigrants eating pets are nothing more than racist, xenophobic responses to Springfield’s shifting demographics.
“This is the same old anti-black playbook that we’ve seen for hundreds of years in Ohio being rolled out to divide and create hate, especially around election times,” Erik Crew, an attorney for the Haitian Bridge Alliance, told The Hill.
“White supremacist and anti-democratic movements have always used the claim that so-called black savages are coming to destroy, especially when political power is up for grabs. This is no different.”
Scores of racist memes have cropped up on the heels of the pet-eating claims, including one that shows shirtless black people chasing Trump as he flees with ducks and kittens under his arms.
JD Vance, Musk amplify rumours
Trump’s running mate and Republican politicians, officials and influencers have been largely responsible for spreading the false rumours.
“Protect our ducks and kittens in Ohio!” Republicans on the US House Judiciary Committee posted on their X account, with an obviously fake image of Trump rescuing a white duck and a striped cat.
“Please vote for Trump so Haitian immigrants don’t eat us,” Senator Ted Cruz posted over an image of kittens.
Republicans appeared to be using the stories to fuel a political attack against Harris to suggest she has failed to rein in illegal immigration during her three-plus years as US vice president.
Immigration is seen as a critical issue in a nailbiter of an election.
X owner Elon Musk, who recently endorsed Trump and has 197 million followers on the platform formerly known as Twitter, has reposted some of the images.
Republican Vice Presidential pick JD Vance, who is from Ohio, took to X to claim that “Haitian illegal immigrants (are) draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio.
“Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.”
Vance has defended his amplification of the claims.
“Senator Vance has received a high volume of calls and emails over the past several weeks from concerned citizens in Springfield: his tweet is based on what he is hearing from them. The city has faced an influx of 15,000-20,000 Haitian migrants over the past four years, stressing public resources and leading to housing shortages, all thanks to Kamala Harris’s policy of extending temporary protected status designations,” a Vance spokesman told The Hill.
“Many residents have contacted Senator Vance to share their concerns over crime and traffic accidents, and to express that they no longer feel safe in their own homes. Unlike the liberal media, JD takes his constituents’ concerns seriously.”
- With AFP
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