The truth behind Donald Trump’s pet-eating conspiracy theory

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump. Photo / Getty Images

Local gossip would once have gone no farther than the end of the street, or around town at most if it was particularly juicy. A few might believe it, but most would perhaps doubt the dubious retelling of a story from a “friend of a friend of a friend” – the incident being swiftly forgotten.

Not so in 2024, however, where a wild rumour posted on social media can not only go viral and be viewed by millions but now appears to have the power to impact both policymaking and the future of one of the biggest countries in the world.

Donald Trump’s wild accusation that asylum seekers are abducting pets and eating them was among the most memorable moments of this week’s presidential debate with Kamala Harris. Immigration has been a polarising issue in the presidential campaign, and the Republican nominee used the bizarre claim as a key reason why his return was needed to fix a “failing nation”.

On first glance it seems far-fetched – indeed, ABC News moderator David Muir quickly intervened to clarify there was no credible evidence to back the assertion. But for those tuned into US politics, it’s not new. In fact, the claim had already been gathering momentum for some time, fuelled by right-wing figures from vice-presidential candidate JD Vance and Senator Ted Cruz to billionaire Trump fan Elon Musk, with some insisting they had “proof”.

One might assume, then, that it had come from a credible source, even if it were disputed. But you’d be wrong. Instead, it appears to have originated from a single Facebook post from a resident in the rust-belt city of Springfield, Ohio.

“Warning to all about our beloved pets and those around us!!” they posted in a private community group. Haitian immigrants, they claimed, had been spotted hanging their neighbour’s daughter’s friend’s missing cat from a branch and carving it up to eat, like you would a “deer for butchering”. Not only were cats in danger, they added, but the asylum seekers were doing it to dogs, ducks and geese too. The incendiary post quickly went viral.

It is easy to see why. With a population of 58,000, Springfield has become a flashpoint in the debate over immigration after up to 20,000 migrants from the Caribbean country moved to the city – legally – over the past four years. With many fleeing strife-torn Haiti due to rampant gang violence and political turmoil, they have been willing to do the blue-collar jobs locals were unenthusiastic about.

But their arrival has put a strain on housing, medical services and the education system – and bubbling tensions overflowed in August last year when a school bus crash caused by a Haitian immigrant – who did not have a valid Ohio driving licence and veered into the wrong lane – resulted in the death of an 11-year-old and injured 20 other students. It has led to a huge divide between Springfield natives and Haitians.

City officials quickly dismissed the allegations last month about pets being eaten, while police said they had received no official reports. But it was too late. Both Springfield residents and Right-wing social-media users jumped on the claims. Many tried to justify them with further “evidence” of the asylum seekers’ alleged depravity – only to have them quickly debunked.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

- Donald Trump on immigration during the presidential debate pic.twitter.com/0A6UEeAwtd

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) September 11, 2024

They shared bodycam footage of officers arresting a woman for killing and eating a cat, claiming she was from Springfield. Ohio police, however, who later charged her for cruelty to pets, said she was neither from Haiti nor an immigrant and had lived her whole life in Canton, around 281km northeast of Springfield.

Another post emerged of a picture, apparently taken in Springfield, showing a black man carrying a dead goose down a road. It has been seen by millions and shared many thousands of times, but it later emerged that the photograph had been taken around 80km away in Columbus, Ohio’s state capital. The photographer, who shared the image on Reddit, has since said he wished he’d never uploaded it and hated that it was being “weaponised” against immigrants.

Yet, this week, the claims began to be recirculated and amplified by high-profile figures on the right. JD Vance – a senator for Ohio – claimed he had raised the issue of Haitian residents “draining social services and generally causing chaos” for months. In a post on X viewed more than 11 million times, he wrote:

Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio.

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? pic.twitter.com/rf0EDIeI5i

— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 9, 2024

John Kirby, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, called Vance’s comments “dangerous” and a “conspiracy theory ... based on an element of racism”. Yet Vance has doubled down on his comments in the wake of the television debate. “No one has spread false claims,” he told journalists in a tetchy exchange, adding that the city manager, who dismissed the claims, was simply “out of touch”.

Ahead of the debate, the claim had also been boosted by X’s owner Elon Musk, a Trump fan with nearly 200 million followers, who posted: “Apparently, people’s pet cats are being eaten”. Senator Cruz, who ran against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination ahead of the 2016 election, posted a meme on X of two kittens embracing, overlaid with the words: “Please vote for Trump so Haitian immigrants don’t eat us.”

The official account for the Republican House Committee on the Judiciary, meanwhile, which has almost half a million followers, tweeted “Protect our ducks and kittens in Ohio!”, alongside an AI-generated image of Trump in a pond hugging the two animals. It has been seen more than 86 million times since – even prompting a reply from the account of Downing Street’s own Larry the Cat, which wrote: “We’re fine – try protecting school kids”.

The notion of apparent invaders eating what they shouldn’t is a common trope that spans geography and centuries. Asian-American communities have long faced prejudicial stereotypes that cats and dogs are a part of their staple diet.

Migrants from Haiti, with its long and caricatured association with vodoo spiritualism that has spawned countless Hollywood depictions of sacrifices, are an easy target for conspiracy theorists.

And Trump himself appears almost keen to instil in voters the fear of being eaten themselves with his repeated references to fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs. During his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last month, he asked: “Has anyone seen The Silence of the Lambs? The late, great Hannibal Lecter … He’d love to have you for dinner. That’s insane asylums. They’re emptying out their insane asylums.”

In Britain, poaching has long been viewed as a threat to our traditions and values, but the fear of migrants eating animals has also captured the public imagination.

In 2003, a Sun front page claimed police had caught gangs of “callous” Eastern European asylum seekers in London trying to barbecue swans. Headlined “Swan Bake”, the article said: “East European poachers lure the protected royal birds into baited traps, an official Metropolitan Police report says.”

However, the newspaper came under fire after police revealed that no one had in fact been arrested or charged with any such offence. Clarifying the story in a later edition, the tabloid said that while “numerous members of the public” had made the claims, it was not yet possible to conclude whether the suspects were asylum seekers.

The same year, the Press Complaints Commission also investigated a front-page story in the Daily Star headlined “Asylum seekers eat our donkeys”. The story was based on an investigation into the theft of nine donkeys from Greenwich Park, with a quote from a “police insider” suggesting one line of inquiry was that it was Somalian and Albanian immigrants who liked to eat donkey meat as a delicacy. The watchdog acted after a Somalian complained about the story, claiming it was nonsense because eating donkey meat is forbidden in Somalia under Islamic law.

In 2012, the Leveson report highlighted both stories in a report raising concerns over the media’s reporting on immigrants, adding that there was no basis to either story. The accusations have continued, however – some with more merit than others. For years, Eastern European migrants have been accused of poaching fish in UK rivers and selling their catches on the black market. In 2013, the Angling Trust was so concerned about who might be to blame for the diminishing numbers of salmon, trout and bream it printed details of the ban in Polish, Romanian, Lithuanian and Slovakian.

Such cases are not confined to just Britain and the US, either. In Europe, rumours flooded Germany in late 2015 and the following months that refugees were stealing, slaughtering and eating horses from farms, goats from petting zoos, and people’s dogs. In all seven cases, they were found to be wrongfully accused.

Now, however, the problem is social media. And while the UK has sought to legislate against tech giants and their platforms for promoting misinformation with the Online Safety Act, there is no such regulation yet in the US. In fact, Silicon Valley is reportedly turning its favour towards Trump, with President Joe Biden’s taxes and regulations on companies pulling them to the Right.

Never known to back down, Trump twice refused to concede during the debate that his allegations had no basis in fact – and in a parting shot, told moderator Muir, “We’ll find out.” Given the quality of his evidence so far, he may well find something – whether it’s anything more than local gossip is yet to be seen.