This week's national news cycle has been dominated by an unexpected, surprising and rather close-to-home story. According to claims being made, Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing neighborhood pets so that they could carve them up and eat them.However, despite the claims having no basis in reality, with backers unable to point to any specific case, they still managed to spread like wildfire both locally in southwest Ohio and across the country as a whole.So, where did this claim come from? The answer appears to lie with Springfield resident Erika Lee.Lee, 35, recently sat down in an interview with NBC News about her role in spreading the false claim. “It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” she told the network Friday.Lee had, just a few days earlier, posted in the Facebook group “Springfield Ohio Crime and Information.””Warning to all about our beloved pets & those around us!!” she wrote.”My neighbor informed me that her daughters friend had lost her cat. She checked pages, kennels, asked around, etc. One day she came home from work, as soon as she stepped out of her car, looked towards a neighbors house, where Haitians live, & saw her cat hanging from a branch, like you'd do a deer for butchering, & they were carving it up to eat. I've been told they are doing this to dogs, they have been doing it at snyder park with the ducks & geese, as I was told that last bit by Rangers & police. Please keep a close eye on these animals”Within just days, the claim that Lee had heard from her neighbor would be amplified on a national debate stage to an audience of 67 million people.“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” former President Donald Trump said in his Tuesday debate against Kamala Harris. “The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. 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.”Earlier that morning, Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, also amplified the claim to his 1.9 million X followers while acknowledging at the same time that he could not prove the merit of the claims.”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,” he wrote on X. “It's possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”Vance then went on to attack the Haitian migrants living in Springfield by accusing them of a litany of complaints that ranged from being the cause of a local rise in communicable diseases, causing a death in the community, and inflating rent in the city.He followed his post up with another one shortly afterward, writing, “In short, don't let the crybabies in the media dissuade you, fellow patriots. Keep the cat memes flowing.”Lee herself never imagined that her post would ever get the traction that it did, and expressed regret in her interview with NBC at the harm that her post caused.“I’m not a racist,” she said through heavy emotion, adding that her daughter is half Black and she herself is mixed race and a member of the LGBTQ community. “Everybody seems to be turning it into that, and that was not my intent.”Lee said that she has pulled her daughter out of school and is now worried about her safety with so much attention on her family. She said she was also concerned for the safety of the Haitian community, which she did not intend to antagonize.“I feel for the Haitian community,” she said. “If I was in the Haitians’ position, I’d be terrified, too, worried that somebody’s going to come after me because they think I’m hurting something that they love and that, again, that’s not what I was trying to do.”Despite the claims being debunked, Trump doesn't appear willing to give up on the claim. At a press conference in California on Friday, Trump declined the chance to walk back his claim when asked by a reporter, and earlier in the press conference, he said that he might make an appearance in Springfield in the future to talk about the influx of Haitian migrants that the city has seen.The post, and the fact that most everyone in the country has now heard of its substance, appears to be a powerful testament to the speed with which misinformation is capable of spreading on social media.“I didn’t think it would ever get past Springfield,” Lee said.
This week's national news cycle has been dominated by an unexpected, surprising and rather close-to-home story. According to claims being made, Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing neighborhood pets so that they could carve them up and eat them.
However, despite the claims having no basis in reality, with backers unable to point to any specific case, they still managed to spread like wildfire both locally in southwest Ohio and across the country as a whole.
So, where did this claim come from? The answer appears to lie with Springfield resident Erika Lee.
Lee, 35, recently sat down in an interview with NBC News about her role in spreading the false claim. “It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” she told the network Friday.
Lee had, just a few days earlier, posted in the Facebook group “Springfield Ohio Crime and Information.”
“Warning to all about our beloved pets & those around us!!” she wrote.
“My neighbor informed me that her daughters friend had lost her cat. She checked pages, kennels, asked around, etc. One day she came home from work, as soon as she stepped out of her car, looked towards a neighbors house, where Haitians live, & saw her cat hanging from a branch, like you'd do a deer for butchering, & they were carving it up to eat. I've been told they are doing this to dogs, they have been doing it at snyder park with the ducks & geese, as I was told that last bit by Rangers & police. Please keep a close eye on these animals”
Within just days, the claim that Lee had heard from her neighbor would be amplified on a national debate stage to an audience of 67 million people.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” former President Donald Trump said in his Tuesday debate against Kamala Harris. “The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. 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.”
Earlier that morning, Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, also amplified the claim to his 1.9 million X followers while acknowledging at the same time that he could not prove the merit of the claims.
“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,” he wrote on X. “It's possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”
Vance then went on to attack the Haitian migrants living in Springfield by accusing them of a litany of complaints that ranged from being the cause of a local rise in communicable diseases, causing a death in the community, and inflating rent in the city.
He followed his post up with another one shortly afterward, writing, “In short, don't let the crybabies in the media dissuade you, fellow patriots. Keep the cat memes flowing.”
Lee herself never imagined that her post would ever get the traction that it did, and expressed regret in her interview with NBC at the harm that her post caused.
“I’m not a racist,” she said through heavy emotion, adding that her daughter is half Black and she herself is mixed race and a member of the LGBTQ community. “Everybody seems to be turning it into that, and that was not my intent.”
Lee said that she has pulled her daughter out of school and is now worried about her safety with so much attention on her family. She said she was also concerned for the safety of the Haitian community, which she did not intend to antagonize.
“I feel for the Haitian community,” she said. “If I was in the Haitians’ position, I’d be terrified, too, worried that somebody’s going to come after me because they think I’m hurting something that they love and that, again, that’s not what I was trying to do.”
Despite the claims being debunked, Trump doesn't appear willing to give up on the claim. At a press conference in California on Friday, Trump declined the chance to walk back his claim when asked by a reporter, and earlier in the press conference, he said that he might make an appearance in Springfield in the future to talk about the influx of Haitian migrants that the city has seen.
The post, and the fact that most everyone in the country has now heard of its substance, appears to be a powerful testament to the speed with which misinformation is capable of spreading on social media.
“I didn’t think it would ever get past Springfield,” Lee said.
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