After a week of right-wing media spreading baseless smears about Haitian migrants abducting and eating pets, conservative activist Christopher Rufo posted a video allegedly showing a cat on a barbecue grill in Dayton, Ohio. Dayton police have issued a statement saying “there is no evidence to even remotely suggest” that any community is eating pets — but some in right-wing media ran with the story, claiming that Rufo’s video falsely “confirmed” the rumors about migrants and animals.
Research/Study
Another MAGA media fail: Dayton police debunk rumors that “any group, including our immigrant community, is engaged in eating pets”
MAGA media are still spreading Chris Rufo's attack on African migrants
Written by Chloe Simon
Research contributions from Jason Campbell
Published
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Rufo’s video is the latest in an escalating series of right-wing attacks on migrants in Ohio
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- Last week, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, promoted baseless and racist rumors about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating pets. During the September 10 presidential debate, Trump claimed, “They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” Right-wing media also jumped on the narrative, calling Haitian migrants “locusts,” zombies,” and “weird Third World aliens.” [The Associated Press, 9/11/24; Media Matters, 9/10/24]
- On September 14, Rufo posted a video purportedly showing a cat on a barbecue with the caption, “EXCLUSIVE: We have discovered that migrants are, in fact, eating cats in Ohio. We have verified, with multiple witnesses and visual cross-references, that African migrants in Dayton, the next city over from Springfield, barbecued these cats last summer.” Rufo did acknowledge in his Substack that “this single incident does not confirm every particularity of Trump’s statement. The town is Dayton, not Springfield; cats alone were on the grill, not cats and dogs.” However, he continued that the video “does break the general narrative peddled by the establishment media and its ‘fact checkers’” and that “independent journalists are already on the hunt and could reveal more.” Prior to releasing the video, Rufo claimed he would “provide a $5,000 bounty to anyone who can provide my team with hard, verifiable evidence that Haitian migrants are eating cats in Springfield, Ohio.” [Twitter/X, 9/14/24, 9/11/24; Substack, 9/14/24]
- Rufo, a senior fellow at conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute, is a conservative activist known for his right-wing crusades against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and higher education. Media Matters has described his career as a long attempt to “inject bigotry and incorrect information into mainstream discourses about gay and trans people, drag queens, and the academic discipline known as critical race theory.” [Vox, 9/10/23; Media Matters, 1/6/23, 7/27/23; The Guardian, 2/21/24]
- Dayton police have categorically denied that any group has “engaged in eating pets.” In a statement, the department wrote, “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.” Rufo’s video has also received a lot of backlash online, with open-source intelligence analyst Oliver Alexander writing that it was “clearly chicken you weirdo. Dude’s never seen chicken that wasn’t dino-nugget shaped.” In a further attempt to verify the video’s claims, CBS News reached out to veterinary experts who cited the image’s poor quality, while another “noted the legs looked ‘weirdly distended’ and in his opinion, did not look like cat legs.” [Twitter/X, 9/16/24, 9/14/24; The Independent, 9/15/24; CBS News, 9/16/24]
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Right-wing media ran with the Rufo video, claiming that it “confirmed” that migrants have been “caught killing and grilling cats”
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- In an interview with Rufo, Rumble host Donald Trump Jr. lambasted the media for saying that “you’re also a terrible human and a racist” if “you don’t agree with them eating your pets.” Rufo responded that “sometimes the truth is uncomfortable for people in power.” [Rumble, Triggered with Donald Trump Jr., 9/16/24]
- The Gateway Pundit published an article titled “A Chris Rufo Investigation: SHOCK VIDEO!… Migrants Caught Killing and Grilling Cats in Dayton, Ohio.” The article described it as a “shock video of the poor cats being grilled by migrants” and blamed it on “Kamala’s open borders crisis.” [The Gateway Pundit, 9/14/24]
- In a segment attacking the “migrants grilling cats,” Daily Wire host Michael Knowles said that the video was “vindicating Trump bringing up the cats and the dogs in the debate.” Knowles claimed, “Migrants are grilling pets in America. That is true.” [The Daily Wire, The Michael Knowles Show, 9/16/24]
- Infowars’ Alex Jones claimed that “They just caught Haitians cooking cats in Ohio.” In a second post responding directly to Rufo’s video, Jones wrote, “I predict that at some point the Democratic Party will embrace the Haitian custom of eating house cats and will put out a best selling cookbook.” [Twitter/X, 9/14/24, 9/14/24]
- Right-wing social media personality Amuse: “Video of people cooking and eating cats in Ohio is starting to emerge. Remember, eating a cat is a federal crime - Trump made it illegal in 2018.” [Twitter/X, 9/14/24]
- Right-wing outlet Twitchy wrote a piece titled, “Pass the PAW-PCORN as Christopher Rufo's Very PURR-SUASIVE ‘Cat Eating Evidence’ Sparks Twitter FUR-Y.” The article wrote that “Rufo decided to offer a reward for evidence it was happening. He stipulated it must have happened this past summer. The proof is in.” [Twitchy, 9/14/24]
- Conservative outlet American Wire published an article titled “Independent probe finds that yes, migrants ‘appear’ to be eating cats in Ohio.” The article claimed that “where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” and gave praise to Rufo’s video for “debunking the state media debunkers.” [American Wire, 9/15/24]
- Right-wing commentator Ian Miles Cheong alleged that the migrant rumors are “CONFIRMED: They are eating cats in Ohio,” reposting Rufo’s video. [Twitter/X, 9/14/24]
- Townhall posted an article with the title, “Oh, Look, a Video of a Cat Being Grilled Like Bobby Flay in Ohio.” While the article acknowledged Rufo’s video “does not comprehensively verify the ‘eating the pets’ narrative in Springfield, Ohio,” it still should “entice the national media to investigate the claims instead of raging at them outright because embarrassment has often been the result of such dismissals.” [Townhall.com, 9/17/24]
- Right-wing social media account “Resist the Mainstream” posted, “ALERT: Illegal immigrants allegedly SEEN grilling cats in Springfield, Ohio. Didn’t the media say this was fake?” [Twitter/X, 9/14/24]