Before the memes started racking up millions of views, there was an unfounded rumor in a small-town Facebook group.
The post claimed, without evidence, that an immigrant community in Springfield, Ohio, was eating people's pets. Days later, the claim would be elevated onto a national stage at the presidential debate, and an ensuing meme war would culminate into bomb threats.
Here's how we got there:
July 8 — A letter to Congress from Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck draws attention to the growing Haitian immigrant population in the small midwestern town of about 58,000 people.
Heck, in his letter to Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Tim Scott (R.-S.C.), requested financial assistance, saying that "the Haitian population has increased to 15,000 — 20,000 over the last four years." The recent influx of immigrants coincided with Haitians seeking refuge from gang violence and economic upheaval in Haiti and local employers in Springfield looking to fill jobs.
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Late July — A meme war involving pets and politics takes over the internet. "Cat lady" memes are spawn from a resurfaced 2021 Fox News interview where Ohio Sen. JD Vance says, "We are effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies."
August — Blood Tribe, a growing Neo-Nazi group, protested the growing Haitian population. They were “carrying swastika flags and sometimes even firearms,” according to the Anti-Defamation League, which tracked white supremacist activity that took place this summer.
One of the protest organizers, former marine Drake R. Berentz, spoke at a Springfield city council meeting, saying, “Crime and savagery will only increase with every Haitian you bring in, and with it, public frustration, threat and anger.”
September 3 — The New York Times reports the rise in Haitian immigrants, referring to increased resources around health care, education, and affordable housing.
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Early September — Springfield resident Erika Lee posts in the private Facebook group, “Springfield Ohio Crime and Information,” about a neighbor, later identified as Kimberly Newton,” according to NewsGuard.
Newton “had provided her with a third-hand account of the rumor,” the site said, "making Lee’s social media post a fourth-hand account.”
September 5 — The claim jumps to X when the account @BuckeyeGirrl shares a redacted screenshot of Lee’s Facebook post, tagging Fox News.
September 6 — Popular conservative accounts on X, with millions of followers, start to spread the rumor with photos and videos.
September 7 — Right-wing memes start circulating three days ahead of the presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“By Monday afternoon before the debate, some 159 right-wing influencers — and 23 Republican politicians, candidates, or party officials — had discussed the meme online,” according to the Washington Post.
A conservative influencer with over 1 million followers on X shared a video of police arresting a woman accused of “eating someone’s pet cat in Ohio.” The post went viral. When the user was asked if drugs were involved, the influencer replied, “Worse. Haitians.”
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The arrest happened in Canton, Ohio, not Springfield, and the woman “has no known connection to Haiti or any other foreign country,” according to the local Canton Repository newspaper. The woman “is a US citizen that was born in Canton, Ohio. We would have no additional comment at this time,” a spokesperson for the Canton police department told the paper.
Another viral post featured a photo of a Black man in Columbus, Ohio, carrying a goose in the street and was presented as evidence for the rumor. The photo was taken in July and later debunked.
Meanwhile, several AI images of the former president with cats, dogs and ducks make the rounds on X. They feature messaging that says, “Make America Humane Again,” or “Donald Trump will save cats.” One post shows an AI Trump carrying kittens to safety while being chased by a group of shirtless Black men.
September 9 — A day before the debate, Republican elected officials spread the rumor-based meme, including Senator Ted Cruz, the House GOP Judiciary account, Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake, and Fox News host Trace Gallagher repeated these claims on his evening program.
Springfield Police Division tells the Springfield News-Sun that the claim about pets being eaten was “not something that’s on our radar right now.” That same day, Springfield police issued a statement “to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
Still, Vance continued to tweet nearly daily about Springfield and Haitian immigrants before and after the debate.
The Wall Street Journal would report post-debate that early September 9, Springfield City Manager Heck “fielded a call from a Vance staff member asking whether there was any truth to the rumors.” Heck told the newspaper he told Vance’s staff, “There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true. I told them these claims were baseless.” Still, Vance had not taken down any of his tweets.
Later that evening, conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk defends Vance.
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September 10 — Just ahead of the debate, Charlie Kirk tweets “EVERYONE they spoke to has heard stories of people's pets being eaten as well as ducks and geese disappearing.”
Trump during the debate says, “In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there.” He was fact-checked in real-time by debate co-moderator David Muir of ABC News.
“I just want to clarify here. You bring up Springfield, Ohio. ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
Videos of Trump’s debate remarks immediately took off on TikTok, YouTube and X.
Post-debate on CNN, Vance criticized the coverage of the false claims. “The media didn’t care about the carnage wrought by these policies until we turned it into a meme about cats,” he said.
The meme war would reach its peak when Taylor Swift endorsed Harris following the debate, signing off her Instagram post, "childless cat lady."
September 11 — Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck says in a statement, "It is disappointing that some of the narrative surrounding our city has been skewed by misinformation circulating on social media and further amplified by political rhetoric in the current highly charged election cycle.”
“This is something that came up on the internet, and the internet can be quite crazy sometimes,” Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said in an interview with CBS News.
Despite those comments, the Arizona GOP put up billboards in Phoenix reading, “EAT LESS KITTENS. Vote Republican!”
September 13 — Vance continued to tweet about Springfield’s immigrant population.
“In Springfield, Ohio, there has been a massive rise in communicable diseases, rent prices, car insurance rates, and crime," reads one post that has garnered over 13 millions views. "This is what happens when you drop 20,000 people into a small community. Kamala Harris’s immigration policy aims to do this to every town in our country.”
When asked at a news conference about amplifying misinformation about Haitians in Springfield, Trump dodged the question, saying, “The real threat is what’s happening at our border.”
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September 14 — Right-wing influencer Christopher Rufo claims he had evidence that “African” migrants in Dayton, Ohio, had eaten cats.
Dayton Police Chief Kamran Afzal said in a statement, “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.”
September 15 — Vance doubles down on the false claim, shifting focus from pets to driving.
“Kamala Harris dropped 20,000 Haitian migrants into a small Ohio town and chaos has ensued," he said. "Housing shortages have caused rents to skyrocket, hospitals are overrun, schools are ill-equipped to teach students who don’t speak English, and the roads are unsafe as unlicensed drivers have caused a massive increase in roadway accidents.”
Gov. DeWine, a Republican, appeared to back up Vance’s argument, saying dangerous driving is “a very significant problem” because many Haitian migrants have “not gone through really any formal courses” to drive in the U.S.
Vance had previously referenced a Haitian immigrant who accidentally veered into a school bus in Ohio, killing an 11-year-old Aiden James Clark in the collision. The driver had a foreign driver’s license and has been found guilty of aggravated vehicular homicide.
Hours before the debate, the boy’s father, Nathan Clark, asked that politicians like Vance and Trump stop “using Aiden as a political tool.”
“I wish that my son Aiden Clark was killed by a 60-year-old White man,” Clark said during a Springfield city commission meeting. “If that guy killed my 11-year-old son, the incessant group of hate-spewing people would leave us alone.”
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September 15 — Vance defends the baseless rumor after a week of no evidence.
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m gonna do,” Vance told CNN.
September 16 — At least 33 bomb threats in Springfield led to school sweeps, evacuations and temporary building closures, DeWine says.
September 18 — The missing cat at the center of the controversy is found in a basement days after being reported missing. Lee’s Facebook post has since been deleted.