Pro-Trump social media users have been circulating a video since September 9 that they say shows an undocumented migrant from Haiti decapitating and eating a cat in the American town of Springfield, Ohio. Former president Donald Trump famously recounted this grisly piece of fake news during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harrison on September 10 to criticize the migration policies of his political rival. In reality, this grisly video was filmed in another town entirely and has no connection to the Haitian community in Springfield.
Trump’s online acolytes have been sharing a video they claim shows a Haitian woman who came to the United States illegally decapitating a cat and eating it in the town of Springfield, Ohio. The video has been widely shared on Instagram. On X, it has garnered more than 4.9 million views.
"There have been dozens of disturbing reports from residents in Springfield saying illegal Haitian immigrants are eating their pets and wildlife: ducks and geese,” claimed one social media user who shared the video. “Who in the h*ll has Harris and Biden allowed into our country.”
Trump’s vice presidential pick, J.D. Vance, soon took to X to spread the fake and xenophobic news story.
"Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio,” Vance wrote in a post on X, which garnered more than 11.3 million views. "Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country. Where is our border czar?"
Trump himself brought up this fake news story about Haitian migrants feasting on the beloved pets of the good people of Springfield, Ohio during his televised debate with political rival Kamala Harris on Tuesday, September 10.
"They're eating the dogs! The people that came in. They're eating the cats! They're eating the pets of the people that live there,” he said.
A suspect who isn’t a Haitian immigrant
In reality, this strange and grisly video does not show the arrest of an undocumented Haitian woman in Springfield. It has nothing to do with the Haitian diaspora or Springfield.
The video, first shared on Instagram, is footage from a "body cam" worn by a police officer carrying out an arrest on August 16 in Canton, a town in Ohio located 276 km from Springfield. The arrest took place on 13th Street SE, a location we were able to determine using a video recording provided by the Canton police and Google Street View.
Our team looked at the report into the arrest of a woman named provided by the Canton police. Unfortunately and bizarrely, the report says “Officers were able to determine that Allexis had smashed the cats head [sic] with her foot and then began to eat the cat.”
Our team asked the police about the woman’s origins.
"The suspect is not a Haitian immigrant but a resident who spent her whole life in Canton,” the police said.
The police added that this grisly incident has “absolutely nothing to do” with the controversy in Springfield.
What we know about the accusations against the Haitian community in Springfield
It’s true that there has been a wave of Haitian immigration to Springfied, Ohio. In recent years, nearly 20,000 Haitian immigrants have settled in the area, according to the New York Times. However, unlike the claims made by Vance, these immigrants did not enter the country illegally. The city’s website explains that most of these people have Temporary Protective Status (TPS), which allows people to stay in the United States when returning to their country of origin would not be safe, in instances of, for example, armed conflict or natural disaster.
A Springfield resident did accuse Haitians of eating a duck in a public park during a city meeting, according to British tabloid the Daily Mail. However, this accusation has not been independently verified by local media.
American conservative media outlet The Federalist reported that police in Springfield had received reports that four Haitian migrants had been seen transporting geese. Newsguard, a company specialised in detecting fake news, has already reported on instances when The Federalist shared fake news about Joe Biden. Reached by our team, Clark police confirmed that they had received such a report, but said they had no further information about its possible outcome. This is the only such report received, and no cases of Haitians attacking domestic animals have been recorded, confirmed the Clark police.
The Springfield police told local paper the Springfield News Sun on September 9 that it hadn’t received any reports of domestic animals being stolen or eaten. Springfield city officials echoed these same sentiments later in the day.
Recurrent racist rumors about Haitians
The pet-eating allegations represent “a shocking disregard for fundamental human decency”, said US-based, Haitian diaspora organisation the MUDJJ in a statement to our team.
On the evening of September 10, Vance took back his statements – well, sort of.
“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 wrote on X.
Conservative social media accounts in the United States regularly spread racist rumors about Haitians. In March, accusations of cannibalism in Haiti were widely circulated in some pro-Trump corners of the internet.
