Free Republic

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The woman behind an early Facebook post spreading a harmful and baseless claim about Haitian immigrants eating local pets that helped thrust a small Ohio city into the national spotlight says she had no firsthand knowledge of any such incident and is now filled with regret and fear as a result of the ensuing fallout. “It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Erika Lee, a Springfield resident, told NBC News on Friday. Lee recently posted on Facebook about a neighbor’s cat that went missing, adding that the neighbor told Lee she thought the cat...

A new remix song about one brief comment from former President Donald Trump during the debate against Kamala Harris has taken social media platforms by storm. On Tuesday night, Trump drew attention to problems in Springfield, Ohio, wrought by an influx of Haitian immigrants who have allegedly defied local laws and customs regarding animals. "In Springfield, they’re eating dogs," Trump said, referring to the Haitian immigrants. "They’re eating the cats. They’re eating ... the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame." At the time, Harris snickered with condescension...

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on Wednesday did his bit to amplify a conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants legally present in Springfield, Ohio are stealing and eating pets, ducks and geese. The conspiracy has been debunked by the Springfield mayor, city manager and chief of police, as well as by Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. Yost is looking to succeed DeWine as governor in 2026. “Citizens testified to City Council,” Yost posted on X Wednesday. “These people would be competent witnesses in court. Why does the media find a carefully worded City Hall press release better evidence?”

A duck rescuer who has spent nearly a decade saving and rehoming wild geese in Ohio has been inundated with calls from concerned Springfield residents amid allegations migrants are eating wild birds. Lisa Montgomery was shocked when she discovered the 'unusual' amount of birds which have disappeared in the region, and now has 'serious concerns' that they're being 'murdered for food.' Speaking to DailyMail.com, Lisa said the sheer number of birds disappearing of late has far exceeded past summers in the region....

Haitian immigrants are not eating cats. But you know what the GOP says: Don't let the truth get in the way of a racist joke.In what ought to be a headline in The Onion but is instead a clear reminder of the deplorable state of political discourse from MAGA world, the Arizona Republican Party has launched a billboard campaign declaring that only the GOP opposes eating kittens. I wish this was just monkeyshines, but it’s very, very real. The billboards, which ape the iconic Chik-fil-A billboards featuring cows encouraging people to eat chicken sandwiches instead of hamburgers, are quite insane....

Police in Ohio have released grisly footage of a crazed woman who allegedly stomped on a cat's head before feasting on the feline in full view of horrified witnesses. Allexis Ferrell, 27, was found with 'fur on her lips and blood on her hands' when police were called by shocked neighbors in the town of Canton on August 16. Authorities have now revealed bodycam video of the suspect after Donald Trump's extraordinary claim that Haitian migrants are killing and eating their neighbors' pets. 'Officers were able to determine that Allexis had smashed the cat's head with her foot and then...

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s experience with Haiti and Haitians goes far beyond his current efforts to manage issues — ranging from baseless rumors to genuine concerns — related to the recent sudden influx of Haitian immigrants to Springfield. The Republican governor has an extensive connection to Haiti. In 1998, DeWine and his wife, Fran, founded the Becky DeWine School, named after the DeWines’ daughter who was killed in a 1993 car accident at 22 years old. The school was situated in a slum known as Cite Soleil in Haiti capitol Port Au Prince and run by a charity that had...

SPRINGFIELD, OH — As viral videos and reports of migrants abducting and eating housepets and geese swept the nation, a large mob of Ohio cats took to the streets to protest Haitian immigration. The crowd of protesting cats — many of which claimed to be survivors of attempted eatings — carried picket signs and stopped traffic to call attention to the dangers Haitian migrants posed to American society at large, and the local cat population in particular. "End immigration meow!" one cat shouted as he marched through the streets. "We are pets — not food! My brother went for a...

For our managerial leadership class, the purpose of mass immigration is to dissolve the American people and create another.If you were confused on Monday by the sudden proliferation of social media memes featuring AI-generated images of Donald Trump surrounded by kittens and ducks, or saving them from Haitians mobs, let me explain.Residents of Springfield, Ohio, a town of about 60,000 people, have been complaining recently about the influx of some 20,000 Haitian immigrants over the past three years, which has transformed their community in profound and disturbing ways. Some have claimed the Haitians are stealing people’s cats and dogs and...

Hot on the heels of their global superstar owner's public announcement that she was supporting Kamala Harris for president, Taylor Swift's cats issued a press release endorsing former President Donald Trump. While the news was a stunning deviation from the pop star's own endorsement, a Swift insider revealed the singer's cats — Meredith Grey, Olivia Benson, and Benjamin Button — were heavily swayed by Trump's pledge to protect pets and other small animals from being abducted, killed, and eaten by bands of marauding Haitian migrants. "This election is about what kind of country we want to have," Benjamin Button said...

Haitian woman in Haiti says she hides her cat so no one will steal it and eat it. Hmmm 🤔

If you do a Google search for 'dogs cats springfield', you'll find page after page of the MSM calling the story false. The closest to something sympathetic to Trump is "Haitian migrants eating pets? Here’s the even more serious story about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio" (link) and that doesn't take the dogs/cats story seriously. You can downplay that all you want, but such search results are what millions of potential voters see. Even if someone manages to find rock solid evidence supporting Trump's claim, it will probably just be a few incidents and it will be downplayed. (The video of...

CBS News already reported on those "imaginary" Venezuelan gangs taking over apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado. A Denver law firm hired by a property manager in Aurora reported that "gang members are engaging in flagrant trespass violations, assaults and battery, human trafficking and sexual abuse of minors, unlawful firearms possession, extortion, and other criminal activities, often targeting vulnerable Venezuelan and other immigrant populations." Plus there were the videos that went viral and took the story national. A police officer in Aurora anonymously testified that it was all true. Documents showed that city officials, the FBI, and DHS were all aware...

Amid accusations from The New York Times and CNN that claims from Republican Sen. J.D, Vance of Ohio about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, are “false,” a phone call to an emergency dispatcher has emerged indicating that at least one report of such behavior was filed with police. Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio. Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country. Where is our border czar?” Vance, the Republican candidate...

Former President Donald Trump, during Tuesday’s presidential debate, repeated a baseless and sensationalist claim about Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating dogs and other pets. "They're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats," Trump said during an answer to a question about immigration. "They're eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what's happening in our country, and it's a shame." Trump's answer was among the most extraordinary of the first 30 minutes of the debate: a former U.S. president spreading an internet rumor — one labeled by some of his critics...

Transcript linked below.

If it had been up to Kasie Hunt, host of CNN This Morning, the rest of today's show could have been ditched, replaced by a non-stop loop of Trump making his claim, during last night's debate, that migrants are eating the pets of residents of Springfield, Ohio. She cited leftist late-night jester Stephen Colbert, and smirked at Trump "spouting baseless allegations about migrants eating pets." After playing it once, Hunt begged a show director: "Can we, can we just, Jimmy in the control room, can we play the pets bite one more time? Can we just watch that one more...

~That bollocks about America being "a nation of immigrants" is an early example of what we now call "virtue-signalling" - and one the US has, alas, exported to other countries where it has even less application. A lot of it derives from that torch-bearing lady in the harbour. As I said at the Munk Debate in 2016, the French gave the Americans a great Statue of Liberty, and the Americans stapled a truly lousy poem to it and turned it into a Statue of Immigration: Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to be human traffickers, jihadists,...

The narrative has flipped from "childless cat ladies" to illegals eating cats. Oh, the chagrin Democrats feel now that the political "narrative" has shifted from "childless cat ladies" to their favored Haitian migrants eating cats, with J.D. Vance in the middle of both and clearly coming out on top with the narrative shift. They rant, they rail, they "fact-check," they dismiss, they debunk, and try to shut any questions down. But they are powerless against the flood of memes that has emerged, as if the entire country's imagination has been captured by the matter, triggering an outpouring of creativity the...

A caller reported to police a group of Haitian migrants carrying four geese in Springfield, Ohio in exclusive audio obtained by The Federalist.A recording of a police phone call obtained by The Federalist reveals a local resident reporting a group of Haitian migrants carrying four geese in Springfield, Ohio two weeks ago.“I’m sitting here, I’m riding on the trail, I’m going to my orientation for my job today, and I see a group of Haitian people, there was about four of ’em, they all had geese in their hand,” the caller tells the public services dispatcher in the audio recording...