US election: Woman who helped spark Donald Trump’s ‘Haitians eating pets’ frenzy insists she’s not racist

The woman whose social media post appears to have been among the first to spark claims that Haitian migrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, has insisted she is not racist.

Erika Lee, 35, claimed in a Facebook post that her neighbour’s friend’s cat disappeared, only to be found strung up outside a Haitian family’s home who were preparing to eat it.

Misinformation watchdog NewsGuard found Lee was among the first to write on social media about the allegations about the Haitian community.

The claims were repeated to 67 million viewers by United States presidential candidate Donald Trump during last Wednesday’s presidential debate, despite local police and officials insisting there was no evidence to support the claims.

“It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Lee told NBC News, adding that she never thought it would “ever get past Springfield”.

“I’m not a racist,” she said, adding: “Everybody seems to be turning it into that, and that was not my intent”.

Lee said she is mixed race, a member of the LGBTQ community, and her daughter is half black.

The Springfield resident added that the city had been struggling to cope with the arrival of thousands of Haitian migrants. Officials say between 15,000 and 20,000 have arrived in the small city of 59,000 people in four years.

Screenshots of Lee’s Facebook post, in which she claimed the pet was found hanging “from a branch like you’d do a deer for butchering, and they were carving it up to eat”, were shared across X.

“I’ve been told they are doing this to dogs, they have been doing it at Snyder Park with the ducks and geese,” she added, and claimed to be “told that last bit by rangers and police”.

Kimberly Newton, Lee’s neighbour, told NewsGuard she had heard the rumour from someone else and that the owner of the cat had been “an acquaintance of a friend”, not her daughter’s friend as Lee had claimed.

“I feel for the Haitian community,” Lee said, adding that she had pulled her daughter out of school and now fears for her safety.

“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.”

It comes after Republican nominee Trump vowed to swiftly deport migrants from Springfield and Aurora in Colorado, which he claimed had been overrun by criminal gangs.

The former US President showed no sign of backing down from his claims that migrants had been eating pets in Springfield, despite accusations that his allegations had triggered violence in the city.

On Saturday, police released video footage of an American woman being arrested for allegedly eating a cat – 270km away from Springfield.

The arrest took place in Canton, Ohio, on August 16 after police received several concerned calls from the public.

Other posts that contributed to the false allegations included a photo of a man holding a dead goose taken in Columbus, Ohio, but was spread online as evidence of the claims about Springfield.

It was also reported that Springfield city hall had to be evacuated on Friday due to a bomb threat, with Mayor Rob Rue telling local media the threat came from someone who claimed to be a local resident and mentioned frustration with immigration.