The Untold Story of ‘They’re Eating the Pets’ in Springfield

It wasn't Trump, social-media provocateurs, or Neo-Nazis who invented the rumor Haitians were eating cats in Springfield: It was the townsfolk themselves

When Trump ranted, “They’re eating the cats, they’re eating the dogs,” I knew there had to be more to the story than it was a hoax by the far right and social media.

Watching dozens of weekly Springfield City Commission meetings, I found it was residents, often Trump supporters, who publicly offered invented pet-eating stories. But there is more to it than that. I show how the rumor evolved, and why Trump is both cause and effect for the extremism he has unleashed.

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Rick McKee, CagleCartoons.com

A close look at the origins of Donald Trump’s hoax that Haitian immigrants are “eating the pets” of people in Springfield, Ohio, reveals a completely different story than has been reported of how the falsehood originated and spread.

The hate is homegrown. Fake stories about Haitians eating wildlife and pets came straight out of Springfield — often from Trump supporters.

Since March 2024, at least four residents in the town of 58,000 have made accusations at weekly Springfield City Commission meetings that Haitians were eating or abusing wildlife and pets. They are among at least eight instances of locals spreading such rumors in public or online before the falsehood went viral in September. 

The rumors did not appear out of thin air, however. Trump is both cause and effect. Years of his blowtorch bigotry has legitimized crude racism and sinister conspiracies that white Americans are being replaced by immigrants. The vitriol Springfield residents have directed at Haitians for more than a year sounds just like a Trump rally.

 

At the March 12, 2024 commission meeting, Mark Sanders said “quite a few people” had told him about “some pretty horrid things occuring to domesticated animal in the neighborhood. We’ve had some stuff in the park.” Sanders is vice chairman of the GOP Clark County party, where Springfield is located.

City Manager Bryan Heck interjected, “You just don’t have proof.” Sanders, who regularly spouts disinformation, said the allegations were anonymous. Mayor Rob Rue said, “We haven’t see the proof. I’ve heard about it too.” This is notable. Comments by both city officials indicate that rumors about Haitians abusing animals were circulating in the city more than half a year ago.

At the June 4 commission meeting, Bill Monaghan, who moderates a Facebook page called, “Stop the Influx into Springfield, Ohio,” complained immigrants were “impacting the availability of affordable housing … and sadly even local wildlife.” In late September, Monaghan told Blaze Media there used to be a pond full of ducks in town, but “they were all wiped out, and I was told it was by Haitians who eat them.” Monaghan spouts false claims such as 20,000 Haitian residents in Springfield are receiving an average of $1,000 from Social Security every month.

At the Aug. 13 commission meeting, Shannon Stanley claimed Haitians were “pulling off of the highway to publicly clean and gut the roadkill lying there in front of anyone that passes by. Stealing animals from Farmers and leaving their severed heads at the side of an old school where children play. Relieving themselves in public. Making some barbaric stew out of the birds that live in our Park.”

At the Aug. 27 commission meeting, Anthony Harris, a self-described social-media influencer, said, “They’re in the park, grabbing up ducks, by their neck, and cutting their head off and walking off with them. And eating them.” 

Harris appears to have gotten his information from Facebook the previous day. On Aug. 26, Annie Schlicher wrote on Facebook, “My partner at work just told me that she picked up her brother in law in Springfield this weekend and told her that he was at the park and saw this Haitian man run up to these geese and cut its head off and take it home and he did it in front of a bunch of 8 year old kids.” Schlicher tagged Harris and he commented, “Bruh like fr fr???” (For real.) She responded, “Yes fr I’m shook.” No media outlet has reported this previously.

Schlicher and Harris’s tale came days before the rumor that went viral and prompted Trump’s “They’re eating the cats” lie. 

In early September, Springfield resident Erika Lee posted on a Facebook group, “My neighbor informed me that her daughters friend had lost her cat. … 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.” (Lee told NewsGuard, a site that debunks misinformation, that she deleted the post to the “Springfield Ohio Crime & Information” group and couldn’t remember the exact date.)

On Sept. 5, @BuckeyeGirrl, “a self-described Springfield native and Trump supporter,” posted a screenshot of Lee’s cat-eating rumor to X. That rumor spread rapidly and worked its way up to Vance and then Trump.

BuckeyeGirrl amplified three animal-eating hoaxes on X, which along with the commission meeting comments adds up to eight hoaxes coming from Springfield. On July 30, she tweeted a Facebook post with the now-infamous photo of a man carrying dead geese. BuckeyeGirrl wrote, “Remember when Twitter was talking about the Haitian invasion in Springfield Ohio? And then I told you all the ducks were disappearing from the local parks? This is today.”

Everything about the rumor was false, according to the Ohio Division of Wildlife. The incident happened in Columbus, which is 45 miles from Springfield. The man picked up the geese after they were hit by a car, and there is no indication the man was Haitian, an immigrant, or that he ate them.

A Perpetual Hate Machine

Examining all eight hoaxes shows what is really happening. Trump has created a perpetual hate machine. He has cultivated a lynch-mob mentality across the country, including among his supporters in Springfield. Like Trump, they use anonymous sources, vicious insinuations, dog whistles, and toss out accusations until one sticks. 

Trump supporters like Mark Sanders, Erika Lee, and BuckeyeGirrl are responsible for many of the rumors. Over six months rumors went from a vague account of “horrid things,” to specific claims of a woman watching her cat being butchered near her home by Haitians. There are no witnesses, photos, or carcasses, and city commissioners have tried to counter disinformation. But it hasn’t mattered.

The rumor is like a virus. It kept mutating until it bonded to racial fears stoked by Trump. From there it took hold in Elon Musk’s X, a superspreader of pro-Nazi and white nationalist lunacy. Finally it quickly infected the most susceptible, the cult of MAGA. 

Ten days after the debate, 69 percent of Trump supporters believed the eating-pets lie.

That belief is a symptom of the Great Replacement conspiracy. The idea, which first gained currency among neo-Nazis decades ago, is that sinister forces are trying to replace whites with inferior immigrants. Endorsed by Trump and Tucker Carlson, the conspiracy is now believed by 61 percent of Trump supporters. 

Some town residents are actively promoting the conspiracy. Bill Monaghan has claimed that mass migration is “pushing people out of their homes. It’s pushing people out of their jobs. … Amazon’s just fired hundreds of workers to replace them with migrant workers.” Glenda Bailey, a local GOP official, said at commission meetings this summer, “Haitians are occupiers in Springfield, and us taxpaying citizens have become their economic slaves,” and “Working-class whites [are] being targeted for extinction.” 

When locals say, “They’re eating the pets,” they are expressing paranoia that they are being consumed. Many residents claim Haitians are forcing them out of town, taking job and houses, and monopolizing healthcare and education. If social services are being overburdened the fault is with Republicans who control Ohio state government. A decade ago they slashed more than $1 billion a year in state funds to local governments to pay for those services.

Springfield is a stark example of Trump’s perpetual hate machine. After racist rumors bubbled up, they landed in X and then the news media. Then violent extremists targeted Springfield. Next, Trump turned the lie into a spectacle during his Sept. 10 debate with Kamala Harris. Finally, as is typical of Trump, words turned into violence and a new cycle began of even more virulent hate.

‘These Guys Are Ready for Violence’

Trump has cranked the imagination of Springfield residents into overdrive. Stories are even more outlandish. Machete-wielding Haitians are threatening them and chasing young white women. Haitians are driving around in vans with over a hundred cats and are eating them. Dozens of Haitians are illegally buying guns. HIV cases are surging. 

Many locals have spoken at commission meetings to denounce bigotry or in support of their Haitian neighbors. They are flocking to Haitian restaurants in Springfield to show support, but it hasn’t stopped the steamroller of hate.

This is Trump’s plan. He thinks saying Haitians are eating pets will propel him to the presidency just as demeaning Mexicans and calling for a border wall did in 2016. He might be right. There are thousands of Springfields across the country filled with voters ready to blame immigrants for every problem and ready to vote for him as their protector. He is spreading the hatred to other towns in swing states, saying of legal Haitian immigrants, “you have to get them the hell out.”

The danger is Trump’s heated language could spark violence by white nationalists just like he did during his first term in office. By the fall of 2018 there were 18 cases of murder or mass killings linked to Trump’s rhetoric. Experts say violent white nationalists were “thrilled” by Trump’s debate comments. 

Hate groups have descended on Springfield including the Proud Boys, Blood Tribe, and Patriot Front, and flyers from the KKK and the Aryan Freedom Network have been posted around town. On Sept. 28, a few right-wing extremists, trying to disguise themselves as antifascists, showed up in Springfield with a banner reading, “Haitians have no home here,” and chanting “America first.”

Since the debate, dozens of bomb threats rocked Springfield, and threat of a mass shooting led local universities to cancel in-person classes. Those threats are believed to originate outside of town.

Inside Springfield, harassment of the Haitian community has surged — much of it by locals. 

Viles Dorsainvil, who runs Springfield’s Haitian Community Help and Support Center, told The New Yorker that some Haitians have left because “they believe they are not safe in this community.” He says people’s housed have been vandalized and windows broken. “Many Haitians” have found flyers from white-supremacist groups on their cars saying if they don’t leave, “it’s going to get ugly.” Dorsainvil said while being interviewed by a reporter recently, “a guy just drove into the churchyard with—he had this big truck and honked at us so badly while this was going on. I mean, you see those guys are ready for violence.”

On Sept. 21, 43-year-old James Blaney allegedly invaded his neighbor’s garage and pointed a gun at a Haitian father and his three children while yelling, “Shut up” and “F— you.” Blaney has been charged with four counts of aggravated burglary and aggravated menacing.