No, illegal immigrants aren't eating your pets

I can't believe I just had to type that in a sentence.

I’ve used my platform to express frustration at political messaging in the past, but this one takes the cake.

I’ve seen issues taken out of context in an attempt to confuse people during Ohio’s recent constitutional amendments that were on the ballot. I’ve seen people try to use misplaced anger in an attempt to turn nothingburgers into full-fledged controversies like the right pretending Joe Biden was waging war on Easter earlier this year.

But until this week, I haven’t seen the desperation full on display like I have with immigration and the lies being spread about people who are just trying to live their lives.

Three days ago, posts on social media spread like wildfire that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were killing people’s cats and dogs and eating them.

As a journalist, I have a pretty good BS meter and all the warning signs were flashing red. When I hear something ridiculous like that, I try to get to the truth of the matter. How did the rumor start? Is there any truth to it whatsoever? Why are people continuing to share it?

I wasn’t going to respond to the pet-eating claims with a column at first, because I thought cooler heads would prevail. I naively assumed that people wouldn’t so easily be duped into believing something so ridiculous. But then Vice Presential candidate JD Vance talked about it in congress, then he posted about it on his Twitter/X. Then Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, posted about it (and defended it).

And then, at the presidential debate last night in front of millions and millions of viewers, former U.S. President and current presidential nominee Donald Trump repeated the claim live on the broadcast, spreading the poison to an entirely new audience. Trump was fact-checked live by the moderator, who said ABC News had reached out to the city of Springfield and there had been no reports of any types of abuse of animals by its immigrant population. Trumps’s response? He said he saw someone on TV say it and that was good enough for him.

Is that all it takes for you to believe someone, seeing someone say something on TV? Are your standards for proof that low?

I’m so sick of this nonsense. Let’s try to find out how all of it started in the first place so maybe you can correct the next person who blindly shares this garbage on social media. Let’s get to the truth.

How did we get here?

Let’s start with Haiti. It is a country that takes up half of an island in the Caribbean (the other half is the Dominican Republic). The island is east of Cuba and south of the Bahamas. In 2010, an earthquake ravaged Haiti killing well over 100,000 people and destroying over 250,000 buildings, creating a humanitarian crisis. The country has never truly recovered.

With their country in ruins, many people fled for better opportunities elsewhere, some arriving in the United States, where they were granted temporary protected status. TPS is limited time permission to stay in a country. It does not give the immigrants U.S. citizenship, but they are given legal status to live and work (and pay taxes) here. According to the latest numbers, there are about 309,000 Haitian migrants living in the U.S. under temporary protected status.

Civil unrest remains a horrific problem in Haiti. With Haiti’s president being assassinated in 2021 and gangs currently in control of the country’s capital, I don’t expect things to calm down there anytime soon.

So that brings us to Springfield. A city located between Cincinnati and Columbus. It was dying. Between 1999 and 2014, it saw the largest decline in median income of any metropolitan area in the United States, largely because of a decline in manufacturing. The city’s population dropped from a peak of 82,000 in 1960 to 58,662 in 2020.

And then the Haitians showed up.

Seeking opportunity and affordable living, approximately 12-15,000 Haitian refugees have moved to Springfield as of 2024. Considering this was Ohio, it shouldn’t be a surprise that there was anti-immigrant sentiment among the native Springfield population, but things seemed to be going well until a year ago when an unlicensed Haitian driver — claiming he was blinded by the sun — struck a school bus, killing an 11-year-old child and injuring 23 others.

That’s all it took. That incident became a top example nationally of illegal immigrants coming to America and ruining our lives, facts be damned.

It didn’t seem to matter that Springfield Mayor Rob Rue has said the increase in Haitian immigrants has not caused an uptick in crime in the city.

PBS News Hour recently visited the city and spoke with McGregor Metal CEO Jamie McGregor, who said approximately 10% of his workforce is Haitian (about 30 employees).

“I wish I had 30 more,” McGregor said. “Our Haitian associates come to work every day. They don’t have a drug problem. They’ll stay at their machine. They’ll achieve their numbers. They are here to work. That’s a stark difference of what we’re used to in our community.”

So where did the pet thing originate?

It started with a report in August of a Black woman in Canton named Allexis Telia Ferrell (who was a U.S. citizen), who was arrested in August for allegedly killing and eating a cat in front of her neighbors. As disturbing as that incident was, there is no evidence Ferrell was Haitian, that she was an immigrant or that she had anything to do with Springfield. The only thing she had in common with Haitians was the color of her skin.

Never one to let an opportunity to amplify hatred pass him by, on Sept. 7, right-wing social media influencer Ian Miles Cheong shared footage of Ferrell’s arrest and proceeded to tell his followers that the reason she did it was that she was Haitian, which he said was worse than if the episode had been triggered by drugs.

A Facebook post quickly circulated on social media warning Springfield residents that Haitian immigrants were stealing people’s pets and stringing them up on branches in trees like deer that have been butchered. Despite no evidence to back it up, it spread like wildfire.

Not long after, a photo of a Black man carrying a dead goose down the street made the rounds online. Captains claimed he was a Haitian immigrant who was killing the geese and ducks at the local park in Springfield. It didn’t take long for this claim to be debunked as the image was quickly sourced to Columbus, Ohio. A man had simply picked up a dead roadkill goose off the street “so it wouldn’t stink up his neighborhood,” and was disposing of it. No, Haitians weren’t killing wildlife at the local park. Again, the only thing this man had in common with Haitians and all the hate being sent his way was the fact that his skin was dark and he fit the narrative.

The city of Springfield tried to fight back. Mayor Rue said Monday that any claims of ducks and geese from parks being killed and eaten were completely unsubstantiated. Springfield police even issued a public statement:

“We wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community."

In response, Elon Musk shared a video from an Aug. 27 meeting of the Springfield City Commission of another social media influencer named Anthony Harris claiming Haitians are cutting the heads off of ducks at the park (although most of Harris’ grievances seemed to stem from poor Haitian driving). Musk ignored the fact that Harris didn’t provide any evidence or that Harris appears to be trying to run for office in Springfield and is doing whatever he can to draw attention his way because social media is his job.

I’m not going to link any of Harris’ social media accounts because the man clearly is desperate for attention. Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll get more than he ever bargained for once the right-wing media sinks its claws into him.

Springfield city officials said they looked into the issue after the claims were made at the meeting and found no evidence to back them up. I checked every video Anthony Harris has posted on social media and he doesn’t have any video to back up his claim about Haitians killing ducks or geese anywhere. All I was able to uncover was a Facebook post Harris shared of a person claiming “their partner at work’s brother-in-law saw a Haitian cut a head off a goose.” That person didn’t claim they saw it. Their partner at work didn’t claim they saw something. No, it was their partner at work’s brother-in-law.

That’s some real in-depth reporting there! Someone get this man a Pulitzer!

Harris also showed a police report where someone called the non-emergency line in Clark County and claimed he saw Haitians with dead geese, possibly illegally hunting. I read the report and an officer was unable to confirm anything, no license plate was given by the complainant, no photos were submitted as evidence and the complaint was forwarded to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. That’s it.

So back to the title of my column. No, illegal immigrants aren’t eating your pets. The only crisis this country is facing is we have a bunch of racist people who will believe any negative stereotype about immigrants that’s put in front of them without doing any critical thinking whatsoever.

I implore everyone reading this. Please think twice before you share that dumb meme on social media. The internet has a long memory.