Who eats cats here?
Springfield. Ohio: Lawsuit against Donald Trump and JD Vance - and a Haitian saying Trump isn't totally wrong.
Since Donald Trump claimed in the TV debate with Kamala Harris that migrants from Haiti were eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio, the tensions in the city have continued to grow. A non-profit is now suing Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.
Some laughed and mocked, others have been defending “their” president to the hilt on social media ever since. Meanwhile, Donald Trump had done it very cleverly: The ex-president and current presidential candidate didn't just claim that the migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating random cats and dogs. No. He specified: they are eating the pets of the people that live there. This struck a chord with the owners of cats and dogs - and probably also caused a portion of fear in some of them.
Since then, 34 anonymous bomb threats have been received in Springfield. The town hall and schools were temporarily closed, both colleges were teaching remote and the hospital was sealed off. Governor Mike DeWine, a Springfield native, dispatched three dozen state troopers, special police officers who are responsible for the entire state of Ohio. It is still unclear who the perpetrators of the threats are. Speculation reaches as far as Iran.
The beginning
Springfield was once a booming industrial community before several factories closed in the 1970s and the population fell to just under 60,000 in 2020. Since then, it is estimated that 15,000 to 20,000 migrants from Haiti have moved to the city. They provide the workforce for newly relocated factories and companies - a quarter to a third of the population. And buses are said to be dropping more off in the city every day. In August 2023, an 11-year-old boy died in a car crash caused by a Haitian migrant. At the start of 2024, the Biden administration announced a temporary protective status for Haitians who arrived in the United States before June 3, 2024, including those who crossed the border illegally.
According to The Epoch Times, the media hype was sparked by a chat between two neighbors - and a subsequent post on Facebook. Kimberly Newton says in retrospect that her neighbor, Erika Lee, had misrepresented what she had said in the post. Afterwards, another neighbor had told her that her daughter's friend was missing her cat. One day, in the garden of the neighbor's house where Haitians live, she had seen her cat hanging from a tree branch, “like you’d do a deer for butchering, and they were carving it up to eat.”
The whole thing escalated when the story was reposted on the X platform. Eventually even by Senator J.D. Vance from Ohio. The Republican candidate for vice president wrote about reports that showed pets being “kidnapped and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country.” In an interview with CNN, Vance claimed that his office had been inundated with complaints from his constituents about similar incidents. At a city council meeting in Springfield on August 27, some residents also made allegations involving ducks and swans. Police confirmed emergency calls that could not be verified by patrols on the scene.
Meanwhile, creatives took the opportunity to poke fun at Donald Trump with his claim during the TV debate:
Who eats cats?
130 kilometers from Springfield, in the town of Canton, a woman actually ate a cat. The police recorded the arrest of 27-year-old Alexis Ferrell with a bodycam at the beginning of September (the key moments from min. 2). According to media reports, she is not an immigrant but a US citizen and may have been mentally ill or high on drugs that evening. On Platform X, a video allegedly shows a black migrant in Italy roasting a cat on a makeshift barbecue. A woman insults him in Italian, saying that such a thing is not customary here. In another video, allegedly from eastern Congo, a man twists a cat's neck.
Another post shows a seemingly credible Haitianreport that investigates the question of whether Haitians eat cats. Yes, a group of people do, especially in the countryside. For example, on December 24 at the nationwide “Reveyon” festival, a big Christmas party. A Reveyon without cat meat is like Thanksgiving without turkey. People don't do this because they are poor or hungry, but out of tradition. In slavery times, even before Haiti became a state, runaway slaves hunted and ate wild cats. Eating cats is legal, because for Haitians, meat is meat - regardless of the animal. They also regard cats as livestock and their meat tastes like chicken. According to the author, he has tried it himself.
On YouTube, a Haitian, “Pr. James D”, who says he is married to an American and is now a US citizen, also gives Donald Trump partial credit: Yes, Haitians eat cats. But most of them don't. However, animal sacrifices are still part of the ritual in traditional voodoo ceremonies. The HEADLINE of the video is MISLEADING, Pr James D talks about the issue in a very differentiated way.
The blogger on X who posted the Haitianreport, on the other hand, ends his article by asserting that most Haitians are law-abiding people who would never steal, kill and eat cats outside Haiti. “So if your cat is missing, don't blame your Haitian neighbor. Pets disappear all the time.” And he adds reassuringly: “The next time someone invites you to a Haitian Christmas dinner: Enjoy it! Haitians would never serve you cat meat without telling you.”
Present day
Such trust will have to be painstakingly built in Springfield, Ohio. This is despite the fact that Mayor Rob Rue has rejected the accusations against the Haitian migrants as unfounded. The claims made by Donald Trump and JD Vance and the ensuing media hype have set back the rapprochement between residents and immigrants by years. They also mask the real problems that have arisen from the rapid immigration into the city. The Dayton News in the neighboring city of Dayton reported extensively on the background. At a city Commission meeting on August 27, some residents for example complained of being disadvantaged in social and medical services compared to immigrants. The Attorney General of Ohio, Dave Yost, has now ordered an investigation to find out how the “extreme population growth” can be stopped.
At the same meeting on August 27, Drake Berentz, a member of the Neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe offered “a word of warning” that the problems with migrants must be stopped, then his mic was cut off. He was escorted out by police. On Aug. 10, about a dozen masked Blood Tribe members carrying banners adorned with swastikas had marched in downtown Springfield in what they labeled an “anti-Haitian Immigration march.” One day after the TV presidential debate, the leader of the group, Christopher Pohlhaus, known as “Hammer”, took to his Telegram channel to take credit for creating the cat rumors. Donald Trump had merely copied.
The non-profit organization Haitian Bridge Alliance, which cares for black migrants, has filed criminal charges against President Trump and J.D. Vance. Both had attempted to defame and threaten the Haitian community in Springfield. The court should hold them accountable “for the devastating harm they have caused to the Springfield community, which has impacted Haitians throughout the United States.”
J.D. Vance has since rowed back. “It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false,” he posted. Vance doesn't seem to have any luck with the animal kingdom. In 2021, he incurred the displeasure of female Democratic politicians when, in an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, he referred to them as “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too”. In the current election campaign, groups have therefore mushroomed on Facebook calling themselves Cat ladies for Kamala Harris in which many female Democrat supporters, like pop singer Taylor Swift, post a selfie of themselves and their cat. On X, on the other hand, a user is active under the name Cat Ladies for Trump.
The Kiffness' parody song “Eating the cats” about Donald Trump with its catchy sound has become a party hit, with people singing and dancing along enthusiastically at concerts - and waving papier-mâché cats above their heads.
This article first appeared in German on my website.