‘They’re eating pets’ – another example of US politicians smearing Haiti and Haitian immigrants

A man in Tucson, Arizona, carries an AI-generated image referencing falsehoods spread by Donald Trump and his running mate about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio.& Rebecca Noble/AFP via Getty Images by Nathan H. Dize, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance continues to defend the false claim that migrants in Springfield, Ohio, have been abducting and eating area cats and dogs. That outlandish idea has been thoroughly debunked since former President Donald Trump repeatedly raised it as an anti-immigrant talking point in the Sept. 12, 2024, presidential debate. Trump never mentioned where the migrants allegedly “eating the pets” came from, but many viewers understood it as a reference to Haitians, a population that Trump has previously degraded. As debate moderator David Muir stated in his real-time fact check, there is no evidence that any pets in Springfield have been taken or consumed. NPR and other media outlets have also declared the rumor, which began with local right-wing advocates and officials in Springfield decrying the city’s disorganized response to an influx of Haitian migrants in recent years, to be false. The Republican ticket’s untrue rumors about Haitians in Springfield reflects a long history...