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Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump flooded the website formerly known as Twitter with images of cats and ducks on Monday. What prompted this sudden love for animals in a community known for its sadism and hatred for all things pleasant? It turns out, they were responding to an incredibly racist hoax started on Facebook and amplified by Trump’s running mate JD Vance.
“Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio,” Vance wrote on X Monday morning. “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?”
Vance’s tweet has racked up 2 million views and counting at the time of this writing.
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
What are these “reports” that Vance is citing? It should be no surprise that the reports are complete garbage cooked up on Facebook. An account called the Calvin Coolidge Project shared a screenshot of the Facebook post on Sunday night, which helped ignite the hoax story the following day.
🚨Report: Springfield Ohio residents are warning their pets and wildlife like ducks and geese are being eaten by Haitians
One neighbor said she saw her cat being carved up by the Haitians. Another neighbor said a police officer told her this is happening to dogs, ducks and geese pic.twitter.com/vANFMqUAzM
— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) September 9, 2024
The Facebook post, which appears to have shown up in some Springfield, Ohio group, is one of those idiotic “friend of a friend of a friend” stories that’s never actually true:
Warning to all about our beloved pets & those around us!! 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
The tweet that shared the Facebook post also included a photo of a guy holding a goose which had nothing to do with the post but appears to be where the claim that immigrants are killing and eating ducks came from. As the Washington Post pointed out, the photo wasn’t taken in Springfield and there’s no evidence the man is from Haiti or an immigrant.
Springfield Police released a statement Monday morning saying they have no reports of stolen pets that are being eaten. And while stupid lies and rumors about immigrants to the U.S. doing bizarre things didn’t start with the invention of the internet, social media has certainly made it easier for these things to spread quickly.
There was a report of a 27-year-old woman in Canton, Ohio who allegedly killed and tried to eat part of a cat last month, according to Fox News. And many far-right influencers linked to that story on Monday as supposed proof of their stupid story. But there’s no evidence the woman was an immigrant from Haiti, despite what far-right influencers insist. Humans just do extremely gross stuff sometimes.
Far-right accounts inundated X with AI images of Trump saving ducks and cats, sometimes while carrying weapons. It’s a common aesthetic choice that’s actually very funny given the fact that Trump is such a feeble coward in real life.
Haters will say this is AI. pic.twitter.com/Tt3VTi7r6h
— Steve 🇺🇸 (@SteveLovesAmmo) September 9, 2024
Tech oligarch Elon Musk even contributed to the discussion on his social media platform X with a heart-filled emoji of one particularly ridiculous AI image showing Trump hugging a duck and a cat.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 9, 2024
Musk also wrote in another tweet “Vote for Kamala if you want this to happen to your neighborhood!” while quote-tweeting a video of Harris talking about immigration. The account Musk was quote-tweeting repeated the lie that Haitians were destroying a town in Ohio and “reportedly kill and eat peoples pets” while “Kamala Harris” was “bragging about allowing them to flood into our country.” Just vile and racist lies all around, obviously.
Vote for Kamala if you want this to happen to your neighborhood! https://t.co/TfR8ekmFAZ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 9, 2024
Trump’s online rapid response team on X, known as Trump War Room, doubled down on the racism with, “President Trump will deport migrants who eat pets. Kamala Harris will send them to your town next. Make your choice, America.”
It should be no surprise that Trump and Vance are trying to throw anything at the wall and see what sticks. They’re flailing in a way that Trump’s campaign was not back when President Joe Biden was the nominee. Biden dropped out of the race on July 21 and Harris stepped in, instantly making up the deficit Biden had struggled with against Trump in the polls.
The race is now a dead heat, with Harris performing well in most of the battleground states, which is precisely why Trump and Vance are going to try anything right now to defeat her. Racist memes about immigrants coming to eat your cat are probably just the opening salvo. When Harris’s running mate Tim Walz helped popularize the label of Vance and Trump as “weird,” the Republicans had no idea how to respond. A joke about Vance having sex with couches turned into a meme that Republicans online responded to by trying to claim Walz must drink horse semen. In trying to respond to a goofy absurdist joke, they made it weird. Because they always do.
There’s no telling how low they’ll go with absurd lies as we get closer to Election Day on November 5. But you can bet it’s going to get weirder before it gets better.
