"Illegal immigrants in Ohio are eating cats and dogs"

Question

During the Trump and Kamala debate, Trump made a wild claim that "Illegal Immigrants" are eating cats and dogs in Dayton Ohio. After digging into those claims almost every single news source went directly to the scenes in Dayton to discover the truth and as CBS News confirms there have been zero incident reports of anyone, let alone Immigrants eating any animals.

Comments

According to the title "Donald Trump Vs Kamala Harris I 'They're Eating The Dogs' I Yes, He Really Said That I Explained", the readers are able to make assumptions that this source is about Trump making statements that immigrants from Haiti are eating domestic pets. The claims made by Trump are false and we can see this from the article I have found "Trump repeats baseless claim about Haitian immigrants eating pets". This article uses true and factual evidence and we are able to observe this from how its confirmed by BBC verify and BBC News. Additionally, BBC mentions where that claim on Haitian immigrants originated from and why that claim is false. Searching up the Author, Merlyn Thomas and Mike Wendling, I was able to see that the authors are verified BBC journalists and have numerous reliable articles published further proving that this article is true.

Answer 1

To start off, I want to say that this is first and foremost incorrect. We can see on CBS news that the police completely dispute the claim: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ohio-police-dispute-new-allegations-immigrants-are-eating-pets-in-dayton/ and during the election the fact checkers themselves said that the city planner denied the claim as well. In fact, the person who orginated the claim in the first place (Erika Lee) has even came out and apologised for it: https://scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3278563/ohio-woman-behind-pet-eating-rumours-spread-donald-trump-admits-claims-are-false What is interesting about this specific claim (That Illegal Immagrants are doing it) is that there is no reported cases of this in springfield, meaning it is also false.

You can also read here if you have any more questions about the case as this article is very comprehensive and actually talks about REAL problems in springfield. It is from the BBC which is a fiarly reliable non-american source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1l4g6g5d97o

Comments

I like how you included multiple reliable sources in your response. Not only did you address the falseness in the claim, you also provided a link to a BBC article that focuses on other realities folks in Springfield are going through-- things that have cases and are taken into account. Whereas Trump's claim was foolish and had absolutely no evidence or proof of any kind to back it up.

Answer 2

I read through a few news articles covering this and I looked at one of the first results, a CBS News article claiming that a police chief In Dayton, Ohio came out and said; 

"We stand by our immigrant community and there is no evidence to even remotely suggest that any group, including our immigrant community, is engaged in eating pets. Seeing politicians or other individuals use outlandish information to appeal to their constituents is disheartening." 

This quote was attached with a link to said announcement, but the link wasn't loading for me so I'll attach here. www.daytonohio.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=707

The rest of the article talks about a staged video from Dayton, Ohio in those following days, that included jokily "grilling" cats. The video was debunked, and even the mayor of the Dayton county had to come out and deny any allegations or anything of the sort. 

Comments

I like how you went beyond the linked video and did your own research to discover possible sources of the information. The police chief in Dayton is definitely a reliable source, and CBS News seems to usually be a trustworthy site. I wonder if you were able to find other articles that supported the claims made in the CBS article?

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I like that you looked into the issue and found a direct statement from the Dayton police chief. However, it could be helpful to clarify exactly why the staged video was debunked and provide a bit more context on how the false information spread!

Answer 3

According to the title "Donald Trump Vs Kamala Harris I 'They're Eating The Dogs' I Yes, He Really Said That I Explained", the readers are able to make assumptions that this source is about Trump making statements that immigrants from Haiti are eating domestic pets. The claims made by Trump are false and we can see this from the article I have found "Trump repeats baseless claim about Haitian immigrants eating pets". This article uses true and factual evidence and we are able to observe this from how its confirmed by BBC verify and BBC News. Additionally, BBC mentions where that claim on Haitian immigrants originated from and why that claim is false. Searching up the Author, Merlyn Thomas and Mike Wendling, I was able to see that the authors are verified BBC journalists and have numerous reliable articles published further proving that this article is true.

Comments

Always include source hyperlinks. Thanks!

Answer 4

Donald Trump's claim that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating cats and dogs is completely false. The rumor started from a Facebook post, but the woman behind the post removed it, stating that she determined it was false after looking into it further.  According to a CBS poll, around two thirds of Trump backers say that they believe the claims are probably true or certainly true despite there being evidence disproving them. Other right-wing activists such as Charlie Kirk and Elon Musk have posted about the story online, further spreading the disinformation. Trump's running mate, Vance, doubled down on Trump's claim, stating that "The evidence is the first-hand account of my constituents who are telling me this happened" (BBC). Trump backers have also created and spread AI generated images of Trump holding or "protecting" Springfield pets. Because of these things, the claim has taken off and the disinformation has spread like wildfire. There is a large Haitian population in Springfield, Ohio, the setting of Trump's claims, and they have suffered immensely since the claim was made at the presidential debate. There have been bomb threats, many far-right groups have appeared in Springfield, and racism has spread through the community.

Trump's claims have been proven to be false and have had real consequences for the Haitian population in Springfield, Ohio because the disinformation continues to spread, despite the claim being debunked.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c77l28myezko

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/marco-rubio-cats-dogs-springfield-ohio-immigration/

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1l4g6g5d97o

Answer 5

4. It is untrue and deceptive to say that people in Springfield, Ohio, are eating their pets, particularly dogs and cats. Local officials have refuted these allegations, which have been widely shared on social media, particularly in relation to Haitian immigrants. There are no reliable reports or proof to back up these allegations, according to the Springfield Police Department and city authorities. Mike DeWine, the governor of Ohio, the police, and the mayor have all condemned the untrue allegations, stating that they are the result of misinformation. Various far-right influencers and political figures have amplified these rumors, but investigations have found that they originated from unfounded reports and misinterpreted events. In summary, there is no verified evidence that immigrants, or anyone else in Springfield, are eating pets. 

 

Sources: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ohio-police-dispute-new-allegations-immigrants-are-eating-pets-in-dayton/