In each edition of web_crawlr we have exclusive original content every day. On Mondays our Tech Reporter Mikael Thalen debunks the most wild conspiracy theories swirling around the web in his “One Dumb Conspiracy” column. If you want to read columns like this before everyone else, subscribe to web_crawlr to get your daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.
By now, you’re likely aware of the misinformation related to cats and Haitian immigrants in Ohio.
For the past several weeks, Trump supporters have accused immigrants from Haiti of eating pets in the city of Springfield.
As you’re also probably aware, not a single allegation has actually been proven.
One of the first claims came from the Facebook post of a woman who alleged that her neighbor’s daughter’s friend had her cat stolen and eaten by Haitians. The claim spread like wildfire among Trump fans, who made no effort to fact-check the claim.
Luckily, some journalists did. They found the neighbor of the woman who made the Facebook post where the claim originated. She admitted to NewsGuard that the alleged cat owner was “an acquaintance of a friend” who learned about the incident from “a source.”
“I don’t have any proof,” the woman said.
After that, police bodycam footage of a woman being arrested for allegedly eating a cat was spread by MAGA. Finally, they had proof. Except they didn’t. Turns out, the woman was an American citizen, not Haitian, and wasn’t even from Springfield.
Yet conservatives kept trying. Next, they found a picture of a Black man with a goose. Surely that was the proof they needed. Only there was no evidence that the man was Haitian. Not only that, he was in Columbus, not Springfield. The Ohio Division of Wildlife later said that the man had cleared the dead goose from the road after it was hit by a vehicle.
Even Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Donald Trump’s running mate, amplified the claim and pointed to a police report from Springfield about a cat potentially stolen by Haitians as evidence for the claim. This time, conservatives had their proof. But again, they didn’t.
Once again, actual journalists drove to the house of the woman who filed the police report cited by Vance. The woman, a staunch Trump supporter, admitted that she had found her cat two days later in her basement. She apologized to her Haitian neighbors for assuming they’d stolen and eaten the cat.
But last week in a post on Instagram, a user shared a legitimate news report about missing cats. Not only that, conspiracy theorists appeared to have done their homework. The story was based out of Springfield! Surely, this time, MAGA had finally found a way to demonize Haitians in Springfield.
But you’ve likely noticed a pattern at this point. And if you guessed that conservatives were wrong yet again, you’d be right.
Turns out, the news story was about the Springfield neighborhood in Jacksonville, Florida. And the story was from 2022, not 2024. And in 2023, the same news outlet reported that the main cat from its story had actually been located alive and well. Sadly, other missing cats weren’t so lucky and were in fact harmed. A man named Blake Miles, a 35-year-old white dude, later plead guilty to two counts of Aggravated Animal Abuse that year.
Unfortunately, despite taking loss after loss, conspiracy theorists seemingly have no shame and are still convinced that an epidemic of cat-eating is ravaging the city of Springfield.
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