A false smear about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio killing pets made its way from a fourth-hand Facebook rumor to Donald Trump’s lips during his televised debate with Kamala Harris. Despite the fact that there is no evidence for this claim and local authorities have explicitly denied that it’s true, Republicans have enthusiastically promoted the libel in order to demonize Haitians who are legally living and working in the town. This promotion includes AI generated images of anthropomorphic cats in tactical gear. 

We discuss how this false claim spread, the background of recent anti-immigrant sentiment in JD Vance’s home state, a historical example of how American anti-immigrant conspiracy theories inspired deadly violence, and how the current smears are leading to innocent people being threatened right now.

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Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe and Nick Sena. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)

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QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.SOURCES

Bloody Mondayhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Monday

Harper, Leslie Ann. "Lethal Language: The Rhetoric of George Prentice and Louisville’s Bloody Monday." Ohio Valley History 11, no. 3 (2011): 24-43.

The Louisville Journal Thu, Jul 26, 1855https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-courier-journal/47743585/

Orozco, Jessica. County: No evidence of August claim that Haitians took geese at Springfield park, Springfield News-Sun.https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/county-no-evidence-of-august-claim-that-haitians-took-geese-at-springfield-park/NFRGJNURHREGHB32HBC6UKZJWQ/

Jordan, Miriam. How an Ohio town landed in the middle of the immigration debate, The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/03/us/springfield-ohio-school-bus-crash-haiti-immigrants.html

Thalen, Mikael.  Redditor dragged into migrant pet-eating fears thanks to photo of a man with a goose lashes out at JD Vance, The Daily Dot.https://www.dailydot.com/debug/redditor-migrant-pet-eating-fears-goose-photo-jd-vance/

D’Angelo, Alec. The origins of Trump’s Ohio Pets Conspiracy, New Lines Magazine.https://newlinesmag.com/spotlight/the-origins-of-trumps-ohio-pets-conspiracy/Caputo, M.A. ‘Trump blew it’: Cat scratch fever on the debate stage, The Bulwark.https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-blew-it-cat-scratch-fever-on