Pets are not being eaten by immigrants

Answer: It started with a social media post about a missing cat.

Then the post, which was false, took on a life of its own.

There is no evidence that Haitian immigrants are eating the pets of Springfield, Ohio, and city officials have been denying rumors.

It started when a woman named Erika Lee posted on Facebook that her neighbor’s cat was missing and the neighbor thought that Haitians had taken it.

“It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Lee told NBC News on Sept. 13.

According to NBC News, Newsguard, a media watchdog group that looks for misinformation online, said that Lee was one of the first to have a social media post about the rumor.

Kimberly Newton, the neighbor, said that Lee misunderstood her. Newton said that she heard about the missing cat from someone else, that the cat belonged to a friend of a friend, not Newton’s daughter’s friend.

Lee has since deleted the post.

The rumor began growing legs on Sept. 6, when a screen grab of a social media post showed up on X, formerly Twitter.

“The retweeted post talked about the person’s ‘neighbor’s daughter’s friend’ seeing a cat hanging from a tree to be butchered and eaten, claiming without evidence that Haitians lived at the house,” according to NBC.

The rumor hit the national news on Sept. 9 when JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, posted the information on X, formerly Twitter, “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?”

On Sept. 10, the day of the presidential debate between Trump and Kamala Harris, in another post on X about Springfield, Vance said that his office had heard from people telling them that Haitians were stealing pets and wildlife.

“It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false,” Vance said.

During the debate, Trump repeated the falsehood, saying, “They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

Bryan Heck, Springfield’s city manager, said in a statement, “In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, 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.”

Last week, bomb threats closed several schools and municipal buildings in Springfield. Lee said she’s had to keep her daughter out of school out of fear for the child’s safety.

“I didn’t think it would ever get past Springfield,” Lee told NBC.

Q: Where can I find information about candidates in the November election? — C.C.

Answer: Democracy NC and Common Cause, non-partisan organizations, have an online voter’s guide for each county that includes national, state, and local candidates. The guide has information about what the candidates have said they would do if elected.

Go to ncvoter.org/guide. You will be prompted to put in your address, and it will give you your ballot for all the offices in the November election.

You can go to ncvoterguide.org/profiles and create a sample ballot. There are profiles of the candidates and information about the referendum on the amendment to the North Carolina constitution that would allow only U.S. citizens to vote.

Early voting begins Oct. 17 and ends Nov. 2. Election day is Nov. 5. A photo ID is required.

If you want to check on your voter registration, go to ncsbe.gov and click on Voter Search. You’ll be prompted to put in your name and year of birth. Your information will come up.

In addition, the Winston-Salem Journal and Greensboro News & Record will be publishing stories about the election and candidates starting in early October.