At a debate in September 2024, US presidential candidate Donald Trump said that illegal immigrants in the city of Springfield (Ohio) were kidnapping and eating other people's cats and dogs. We decided to check whether this statement is true.
Trump’s statement was quoted by many Russian media: “Komsomolskaya Pravda", "Gazeta.ru", "Arguments and facts", as well as Telegram channels - "Ax Live"(819,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Nevzorov"(527,000), Shot (400,000), "Bad News 18+"(234,000), etc. The politician’s statement and social network users are discussing the statement (“VKontakte", X, Facebook).
On the night of September 11, 2024 Moscow time, US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris for the first time met at a debate hosted by ABC. Since his presidency, Trump has consistently stands for tightening immigration policy: promises to stop illegal immigration and limit legal immigration. It is not surprising that one of the key theses of the politician at the debate was the migration issue. Among other things, Trump said: “What they (Harris and current US President Joe Biden. - Ed.) did to our country, allowing these millions and millions of people to come to our country. <…> In Springfield they eat dogs. People who arrived. They eat cats. They eat the pets of the people who live there. And this is what is happening in our country. And it's a shame." Moderator David Moir countered that ABC contacted Springfield officials, who denied Trump's claims. He, in turn, retorted that he had seen interviews on TV with local residents who talked about similar incidents.
Over the past few years, many migrants from Haiti have indeed moved to Springfield, but judging by statistics, which is cited by the American Media, this did not lead to an increase in crime. However, even before the Trump-Harris debate, rumors spread on the Internet that Haitians living in this city were allegedly stealing pets from their neighbors, which they subsequently ate. Apparently, it all started with post, which was posted to X by @EndWokeness on September 6, 2024. The publication, which received 4.9 million views, contained a screenshot of a post on some other platform. Its author complained that a friend of his neighbor’s daughter lost a cat, and a few days later she saw it hanging on a tree in the yard of a house where Haitians lived - they were allegedly preparing to eat it. In addition, a photo of a dark-skinned man carrying a bird that looked like a goose by its paws was attached to the post. In the following days in X this story shared and other users, and the candidate for US Vice President from the Republican Party joined the discussion JD Vance and the owner of the social network Elon Musk, publicly supporting Trump.
It is almost impossible to verify the claim about a cat hanging from a tree, since it is unclear on which resource the original message was published, and the screenshot does not contain any information to identify its author. In addition, the story itself is based on other people’s words - and, probably, retold more than once, that is, some details during the transfer of information could have been significantly distorted.
With a photograph of a man carrying a bird, everything is somewhat simpler. Using a reverse image search, it was possible to establish that the photo was first published on Reddit back on July 28th. A month and a half later, the author again posted him - with the comment that this photo is being used by right-wing media. He clarified that the photo was indeed taken in Ohio, but not in Springfield, but in Columbus. In an interview with a newspaper The Columbus Dispatch The author of the photo, who wished to remain anonymous, said he took the photo because “it’s not something you see every day.” He clarified that he regrets publishing the image, as it is now being used against migrants. The man in the photo could not be identified, so it is unknown whether he is really a visitor from Haiti.
As the moderator of the debate between Trump and Harris said, the city of Springfield denies information about the abduction and consumption of pets by migrants. Representatives of the city administration told reporters USA Todaythat they have not received any credible reports of cases of pets or birds living in the parks being abused or killed. Supported them and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican.
At the end of August in the same state there was incident, which could have given rise to similar rumors: a black resident of the city of Canton, while intoxicated, brutally killed a cat in order to eat it. The girl was arrested, and soon it turned outthat she is not an immigrant from Haiti, but an American named Alexis Ferrell.
Thus, there is no reliable evidence of cases (massive or even isolated) in which migrants from Haiti stole pets from residents of the city of Springfield, Ohio and then ate them. The publication, which apparently became the primary source of these rumors, cites as evidence a story retold by an anonymous user from the words of another person, and a photo taken in another city a month and a half earlier. The viral information is also denied by local authorities.
Cover photo: social media (image created by artificial intelligence)
Read on the topic:
- ABC News. Harris-Trump presidential debate transcript
- NPR. How Springfield, Ohio, took center stage in the election immigration debate
- Is it true that most crimes in Russia are committed by migrants?
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