Why is Trump baselessly claiming Haitian immigrants are eating cats and dogs?

Words by Aisha Kherallah, Assistant Producer

As he faced Kamala Harris during Tuesday's televised US presidential debate, Donald Trump was stopped by the moderator after making a baseless claim that Haitian immigrants were eating people's pets.

"In Springfield, they're eating the dogs — the people that came in, they're eating the cats," the Republican nominee and former president said.

"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."

This prompted David Muir, ABC’s moderator, to note that the city manager had told ABC News there was no evidence of any pets being harmed – but Trump refused to concede. 

“I’ve seen people on television … the people on television say, 'my dog was taken and used for food'," Trump said. “So maybe he said that, and maybe that’s a good thing to say for a city manager.”

Trump appeared to be referencing a claim which alleges Haitian immigrants have been eating cats, as well as ducks and geese, which has garnered millions of views on X.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance's post on the claim has racked up over 11 million views on X as of Wednesday afternoon.

Vance who represents Ohio in the Senate, said he had “raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio”.

He added: “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country."

According to the Washington Post, the conspiracy originates from “a screenshot of a Facebook post", purportedly from a local resident, which "warns that the author’s neighbour’s daughter’s friend had discovered that her neighbours —supposedly Haitian immigrants —were trying to eat her cat".

"She also claimed (this time crediting 'Rangers and police') that similar fates were befalling ducks and geese at a local park," the newspaper adds.

The rumour was picked up by various commentators, including Elon Musk and Texas Senator, Ted Cruz. Cruz posted a meme on X showing two cats holding each other with the text "PLEASE VOTE FOR TRUMP SO HAITIAN IMMIGRANTS DON'T EAT US."

Independent analysis seen by ITV News shows how last Friday, there were only nine mentions on the social media platform X of the words "cats", "Ohio", and "immigrants" used in combination.

This jumped to more than 9400 daily mentions on Monday, making "Haitians" the No. 1 trending topic in the US on X. Following the debate, this peaked with just over 24,000 mentions and was around 17,000 mentions as of Wednesday midday.

When asked on Tuesday about the unsubstantiated claim, White House national security spokesman John Kirby called it “dangerous” misinformation. 

“Because there will be people that believe it, no matter how ludicrous and stupid it is. And they might act on that kind of misinformation, and act on it in a way where somebody can get hurt, so it needs to stop,” Kirby said.

Springfield, a city of just under 58,000 people, has seen a significant increase in immigration in the last several years. The city's website says the "total immigrant population is estimated to be approximately 12,000 – 15,000 in Clark County", a large proportion of whom are from Haiti.

In an NBC News poll in April, 22% of voters put immigration and the border as the most important issue facing the country, second only to inflation and the cost of living at 23%. 

Following the debate, Vance continued to push the baseless narrative on immigrants eating people's pets.

“First of all, city officials have not said it's not true," Vance said to CNN. "They said they don't have all the evidence. No evidence." He added, ”If we have to meme about it to get the media to care, we're going to keep doing it.”

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