Springfield pet-eating hoax
Starting in September 2024, false claims spread online saying Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, United States. The claims began with a local Facebook group post claiming a neighbor's daughter's cat had been butchered, and spread quickly among far-right and neo-Nazi groups. The claims were then amplified by prominent figures in the American right, most notably Republican Ohio senator and vice-presidential nominee JD Vance, followed by his running mate Donald Trump and allies such as Laura Loomer and Elon Musk. Subsequently, the person who posted to Facebook and her neighbor admitted the daughter's involvement was false and it was just a rumor from a friend's acquaintance, with whom they had not spoken.
Springfield and county law enforcement said that no credible reports or evidence support the claims, and the city's mayor Rob Rue and Ohio governor Mike DeWine, who are both Republicans, denounced them. Fact-checking website Snopes called the claims unfounded, while others characterized them as a hoax or a lie. When challenged on the factual basis of the claims, Vance told interviewer Dana Bash, "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."
The claims were widely described as racist, and they spread amid existing racial tensions in Springfield, where recent legal Haitian immigration strained some public resources. There had been previous incidents of hostility towards the local Haitian community and unfounded local rumors of Haitians stealing waterfowl for food. After the claims spread, dozens of bomb threats targeted Springfield schools, hospitals, public buildings, and businesses, often accompanied by anti-Haitian messages. Fact-checking website PolitiFact named the hoax its annual "Lie of the Year".
Background
In 1983, Newsweek called Springfield one of America's "dream cities," but in 2011 Gallup referred to it as the "unhappiest city" in the country primarily due to deindustrialization, which caused substantial job losses and an exodus of residents. By 2015, its population had dwindled from about 80,000 in 1970 to under 60,000. In 2014, the city launched a "Welcome Springfield" initiative to attract immigrants to improve the local economy. The city's leadership and its Chamber of Commerce then led a drive to attract businesses and investment to spur an economic revival in Springfield.As new businesses opened and a labor shortage emerged, Haitian immigrants began arriving in Springfield around 2017 to work in local produce-packaging and machining factories. By 2020, Springfield's economy had somewhat rebounded; new employers had added some 8,000 jobs, adding to the labor shortage. Employers encouraged Haitians to continue coming to the city to fill jobs in warehouses, manufacturing, and the service sector. Haitians in the United States, Haiti, and South America heard from family and friends about Springfield, its low cost of living, and its need for workers. Immigration increased substantially after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, coinciding with deepening political and economic instability in Haiti after the assassination of the president in 2021. By 2024, some 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants, many Haitian, had legally moved to the Springfield area. In June 2024, ongoing crises and severe violence in the Caribbean nation of Haiti led the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to grant temporary protected status to Haitian immigrants, allowing the existing migrant population in the U.S. to live and work without the risk of deportation.
While the migrants have had a positive economic impact on the city, the rapid growth of its immigrant population has strained public resources. In July 2024, Springfield city manager Bryan Heck sent a letter to the Senate Banking and Housing Committee asking for federal assistance to address the housing crisis caused by a swift expansion of population. The next day, Ohio senator JD Vance excerpted part of the letter to support an anti-immigration argument, framing it as a "migrant crisis" instead of a housing crisis, and ignoring the request for help.
The increased Haitian population and resource strain fueled racial tensions in Springfield, leading to a series of attacks on the Haitian community. In early 2023, a Springfield man committed several assaults and robberies on Haitian residents and was later sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. The local Haitian church was vandalized and broken into twice. U.S.-born Black people of Springfield were verbally abused when mistakenly identified by strangers as Haitian immigrants. In August 2023, a Haitian immigrant crashed into a school bus on State Route 41 northwest of Springfield, killing an 11-year-old boy. The driver was later sentenced to nine to years in prison. The incident further inflamed racial tensions in the area and increased hostility towards the Haitian community. Later that month, the Springfield Jazz & Blues Fest was interrupted by neo-Nazis with rifles who performed Nazi salutes and held swastika flags. Local police called it "a little peaceful protest". Afterwards, a member of the neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe disrupted a Springfield city meeting, introducing himself with an allusion to an anti-black slur and saying that "crime and savagery will only increase with every Haitian you bring in". The Counter Extremism Project reported that on September 1, the white nationalist Patriot Front protested against the Haitian immigrants in Springfield.
Origin and spread
Facebook post
The rumor that Haitian immigrants ate a pet cat in Springfield began in early September 2024 with a Facebook post to a private group called "Springfield Ohio Crime and Information", and that post was later re-posted elsewhere. The post said:Warning to all about our beloved pets & those around us!! My neighbor informed me that her daughter’s friend had lost her cat. She checked pages, kennels, asked around, etc. One day she came home from work, as soon as she stepped out of her car, looked towards a neighbors 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.
The author of the Facebook post later deleted it and expressed regret that the story fueled conspiracy theories. The neighbor who initially relayed the story to the poster said that she was not "the most credible source", and clarified that it was not her daughter's friend but just a rumor she heard from a friend's acquaintance.
Other events
Misinformation about several unrelated stories led to their being linked to the pet-eating hoax. Before the pet-eating claims gained virality, there were rumors in Springfield of Haitians eating waterfowl from city parks, which the city's deputy director of public safety and operations denied. In July, a user posted a photo to Reddit of a man carrying a dead Canada goose on the street in Columbus, Ohio. The goose was roadkill, there was no evidence that the man intended to eat it, and there was never any evidence the man was Haitian or an immigrant. More than a month after the Reddit post, right-wing sites and influencers publicized the photo, claiming it shows a Haitian immigrant stealing geese in Springfield. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources was inundated with phone calls from people who believed the misinformation, and it became associated with the larger pet-eating hoax.In August, a 27-year-old U.S.-born woman was arrested in Canton, Ohio, on charges that she killed and ate a cat. Police body camera footage of the arrest was posted to social media and falsely labeled as an arrest in Springfield. Like the Columbus man, the Canton woman had no connection to Haiti or Springfield. The woman was later sentenced to twelve months in prison in relation to the case.
On August 26, Clark County law enforcement dispatchers received a call from someone who said they saw Haitians carrying geese near a Springfield bike trail, but police found no evidence. Clark County Commission president Melanie Flax Wilt characterized the episode as a "literal wild goose chase", and Clark County officials said no other calls regarding stolen animals had been received in the last 11 months. The following day, a Springfield resident commented at a city commission meeting, without evidence, that immigrants were "in the park grabbing up ducks by their neck and cutting their head off... and eating them". The only confirmed report of someone illegally hunting geese in Springfield was a 64-year-old white man, who was arrested on September 10 and charged with illegally hunting Canada geese at a golf course with a shotgun; he later pled guilty to hunting without a permit.
Official response
Springfield's police department issued a statement that said "there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community". Springfield mayor Rob Rue said that there was no evidence to support claims that geese or ducks from parks were being killed and eaten. He told an interviewer, "All these federal politicians that have negatively spun our city, they need to know they're hurting our city, and it was their words that did it." City manager Bryan Heck called the rumors "disinformation". Ohio governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, rebuked the rumors, saying, "This is a piece of garbage that is simply not true. There's no evidence of this at all." He also emphasized that these "people are here legally."Amplification by Republican politicians and right-wing influencers
The initial claims based on the Facebook post went viral among American far-right, neo-Nazi groups, and popular right-wing Twitter accounts which presented the claims as fact. Captive Dreamer, an account followed by Vance and Musk and described by The Daily Dot as "one of the most popular accounts posting white nationalist content on X", took credit for its spread. According to the Media Forensics Hub at Clemson University, the first viral content was a tweet posted on September 6 by the account End Wokeness, which was viewed millions of times and included a screenshot of the Facebook post, a screenshot of the Reddit photo of the man with the goose, and text linking disappearing "ducks and pets" to 20,000 Haitians "shipped to" Springfield.On September 9, JD Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio and the 2024 Republican nominee for vice president, spread the claim in a tweet while referencing his July 2024 press release, writing: "Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants 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." A magazine profile on the Trump campaign later stated that Trump campaign staff member Alex Bruesewitz encouraged Vance to amplify the claim. One of Vance's staffers had asked Springfield's city manager Brian Heck about the claim; Heck recalled, "I told him no. There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true. I told them these claims were baseless." Vance responded to criticism of his post on September 10, writing: "In the last several weeks, my office has received many inquiries from actual residents of Springfield who've said their neighbors' pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants. It's possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false." He also encouraged supporters to continue posting and "keep the cat memes flowing".
Right-wing influencers used Twitter to spread the claims and related memes, with Laura Loomer posting about "20,000 cannibalistic Haitians" eating cats and dogs in Springfield and Texas senator Ted Cruz sharing a widely criticized meme showing two cats with the caption "Please vote for Trump, so Haitian immigrants don't eat us". The Arizona Republican Party purchased twelve roadside billboards in the Phoenix metro area stating "Eat less kittens, Vote Republican!", spoofing Chick-Fil-A's "Eat Mor Chikin" advertising campaign. Elon Musk shared a variety of memes and videos including misinformation about eating pets and Haitian Vodou. Caribbean and Latin American ethnologists interviewed by Deutsche Welle clarified the myth, explaining that Vodou had long been stigmatized in the U.S. since the 1915–1934 U.S. occupation of Haiti when American soldiers often interpreted Vodou rituals they observed as Satanism.
Following his running mate's promotion of this rumor, it was elevated further by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. During the Harris–Trump presidential debate on September 10, Trump claimed that: "In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating, 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." Harris started laughing as Trump was making those statements. After Trump concluded his statements, the moderator of the debate, David Muir, stated that ABC News reached out to the city manager, whose spokesperson said: "There have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community".
Despite many news outlets debunking or criticizing the claims after the debate, they continued to spread and expand. Loomer accused Haitian immigrants of eating humans, while sharing a video captioned "Cannibalism in Haiti". White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, herself the daughter of Haitian immigrants, responded to the comments, stating that "no leader should ever associate with someone who spreads this kind of ugliness, this kind of racist poison." Trump began repeating the debunked claim that Haitians were walking off with pet geese from the parks and lakes in Springfield. According to a poll conducted by YouGov between 12 and September 13, 52% of Trump supporters said that the claim is "definitely" or "probably" true, 24% said they're "not sure" if it's true, and 25% said it's "probably" or "definitely" false.