Donald Trump, vice presidential candidate JD Vance and other prominent Republican figures are spreading an unfounded rumor that Haitian immigrants in a small Ohio town are stealing ducks and cats to eat.
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On social media, Donald Trump is now presented as an animal rights activist.
“Please vote for Trump so Haitian immigrants don’t eat us,” reads one caption beneath AI-generated images of ginger kittens with terrified looks.
This could be another attempt by the Republican camp to convince American voters to close the country’s borders.
Like wildfire
In a message posted Monday on X, vice presidential candidate JD Vance claimed that illegal immigrants from Haiti were “wreaking havoc” in Springfield, Ohio. The 40-year-old is a senator from the Midwestern state.
“Reports are coming in that people have had their pets taken and eaten by people who should not be in this country,” he wrote on the social network.
The city of Springfield, which had a population of 58,000 in 2020 according to the census, has welcomed about 20,000 Haitian immigrants since the COVID-19 pandemic. Attracted to Springfield by manufacturing and warehouse jobs, they arrived in the United States legally.
Vance’s allegations have nevertheless spread like wildfire among Donald Trump supporters, with the former president himself referring to them during his debate with Kamala Harris on Tuesday night.
Other Republican figures such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz have fueled the thesis by relaying this false information.
Billionaire Elon Musk also shared an image of a duckling and a kitten with the words “save them.”
Even the official account of the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee has joined in the movement.
Springfield City Police quickly denied the rumor.
“There is no credible information or specific claims of pets being mistreated, injured or abused by the immigrant population.”, she said in a press release.
Where did the rumor come from?
The claim, which was shared on social media by pro-Trump accounts, appears to come from multiple sources, the BBC reports.
At a Springfield City Commission meeting on August 27, a resident who describes himself as an “influencer” launched into a rant against Haitian immigrants, claiming they were slaughtering ducks in a park for food.
A member of a Springfield crime Facebook group reportedly shared a story from a “friend of his neighbor’s daughter” who claimed that one of his Haitian neighbors tried to eat his cat.
A report from late August about a woman arrested for killing and eating a cat also circulated online.
Right-wing commentators used the report to falsely accuse Haitian immigrants of engaging in similar activities.
— With information from BBC, The Guardian and Franceinfo
