Ohio

Reports of Haitian migrants stealing and eating pets and ducks have been doing the rounds for a few weeks. Elon Musk, Republican influencers and even former President Donald Trump’s running-mate JD Vance have all talked about the issue on social media. 

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But is it really true? Are Haitian migrant stealing pets from houses and ducks from public parks and turning them into their meal?

Springfield in Ohio is home to around 60,000 people. As per officials, up to 20,000 Haitian immigrants have moved to the city in the last several years. Critics say the allegation of Haitians eating pets is racist and a plot against them.

The matter first made headlines when during an August meeting of the Springfield City Commission, a man claimed that migrants from Haiti were stealing ducks at local parks, beheading them and then taking them home to eat, as per a New York Post report. However, the man offered no proof. He demanded the officials to take action against the migrants.

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“They’re in the park grabbing up ducks by their neck and cutting their head off and walking up with them and eating them,” the man said. 

Someone in the Springfield Facebook group claimed that a friend saw their cat butchered and purportedly hanging in the yard of the home of a Haitian migrant. 

Claims seem to have no basis

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However, none of the claims were verified. The police told the Springfield News-Sun that the matter is not of concern to them for now. "There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community," a Springfield spokesperson said.

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Another video shared in the FB group showed a woman who was allegedly arrested for eating a cat. However, the incident did not happen in Springfield, and the woman, 27-year-old Allexis Telia Ferrell, is neither Haitian nor a migrant, as per records.

According to Fox12, Ferrell was charged after going berserk on August 16 and allegedly stomping on a cat and then eating it in front of her neighbours.

Vice-presidential candidate JD Vance also raised the matter in a social media post. "People have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country," Vance wrote on X.

“Senator Vance has received a high volume of calls and emails over the past several weeks from concerned citizens in Springfield: his tweet is based on what he is hearing from them,” one of his spokespersons told The Hill.

Meanwhile, several social media commenters say the claims are "racist, xenophobic responses to Springfield’s shifting demographics", where the white population has been declining and that of blacks and Hispanics is rising.