Professor Merrill Kaplan is the director of Ohio State University's Center for Folklore Studies. She studies and teaches about the role of rumor, legend, folk belief, and superstition in society.
Springfield City Hall received a bomb threat a day ago.
It was presumably related to the rumor that Haitian immigrants are eating people's cats and dogs in that city.
City leaders and the media are debunking the pet-eating rumor but are not describing as a longstanding legend, i.e., folklore.
The original Facebook post describes hearing the story from a neighbor's daughter's friend, the sort of friend-of-a-friend attribution typical of unfounded rumor.