Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance — a vocal proponent of conspiracy theories about immigrants “replacing” Americans — is now spreading misinformation about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio who killed pets of family and protected wildlife.
“Reports are now showing that people are being abducted and people are eating their pets by people who should not be in this country,” Vance posted on X on Monday, echoing an unsubstantiated rumor that started on right-wing social media over the weekend.
The unnamed “reports” mentioned by Vance are probably from Infowars or the Daily Mailboth of which published thinly sourced posts about Haitian migrants eating livestock and wildlife. Both publications refer to a Facebook post in which someone said their neighbor’s son’s friend lost his cat — and it was later found “hanging from a branch, like a deer for slaughter,” outside a house “where Haitians live.” The local police, however, tells the Springfield News-Sun with no reports of pets being stolen and eaten in the community.
However, the Springfield pet situation is a particularly instructive example of how the right-wing media often launders and spreads blatant misinformation. The rumor, which reports suggest has been circulating locally for at least a month, was fueled by conservative influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers — and then mainstreamed by politicians including Vance and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and immigration obsessives like Elon Musk.
The News-Day It has been suggested that the original Facebook post conflated Springfield with Canton, Ohio, a city 175 miles northeast of where a woman was recently arrested for allegedly killing and eating a cat in front of a crowd. Right-wing commentator Ian Miles Cheong — who frequently posts about US politics despite living in Malaysia — suggested the woman who ate the cat was Haitian.
The pet situation in Springfield is a particularly instructive example of how the right-wing media often launders and spreads blatant misinformation.
That woman, Allexis Ferrell, is a United States citizen, according to Daniel Di Martino, a PhD student at Columbia and fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute who found her voter registration information. Other reports suggest the rumor started before Ferrell’s arrest. “We get these reports that ‘Haitians are killing ducks in many of our parks’ or ‘Haitians are eating vegetables right from the grocery store aisle,'” said Jason Via, Springfield’s deputy director of public safety and operations. NPR in August. “And we’ve never seen anything like that. It’s really frustrating.”
But the rumors persisted. A Springfield resident recounted this at an Aug. 27 meeting of the Springfield City Commission, saying Haitian migrants “were in the park taking ducks by the neck and cutting off their heads and leaving with them and eating them .”
City commission meetings, archived on YouTube, have become a steady source of content for right-wing commentators eager to prove that real Americans are suffering because of the supposed open border. On September 8th, the X account End Wokeness posted a clip from the August 27th commission meeting, fueling the duck-eating rumor to more than 2.9 million followers. Two days earlier, the same account posted a screenshot of an unverified Facebook post, saying “ducks and pets are missing” in Springfield. Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk reposted the photo on September 8th. “Apparently, people’s pet cats are being eaten,” wrote Musk, who frequently posts about the “great replacement” conspiracy theory. “If it weren’t for 𝕏,” End Wokeness posted the next day, “you’d have no idea Haitians were eating cats in Springfield.”
Right-wing disinformation campaigns about migrants are not limited to Springfield. Last month, after a video showing armed men knocking on an apartment door went viral on X, conservative commentators said Venezuelan gang members had taken over an apartment complex in Colorado. End Wokeness said gang members began collecting rent on a second building. City Journalthe Manhattan Institute’s in-house publication, said the two apartment complexes were “run over” by Venezuelan gang members. Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman later said that “criminal elements” had taken over buildings in the city, and were extorting residents. Former President Donald Trump slammed the reports, saying “the Venezuelans took over the whole town.”
In fact, Aurora police told the Associated Press that the gang members did not take over the apartment complexes and did not collect rent. Residents of one building, some of whom are Venezuelan, say the complex’s New York-based management company has neglected repairs. But the rumor continued to spread at X, where it was fueled by Musk. “Unless Trump wins,” he posted, “meet your new building managers.”
