A Springfield, Ohio, woman who spread rumors about Haitian migrants eating pets says she is remorseful and insists she never intended to target the Haitian community.
Erika Lee, 35, said she came out after she was warned by a resident in the Facebook group that she “pepepepe told me that her friend’s daughter lost her cat”, only to find the pet strung up “from a branch” outside the house of a Haitian family.
But Lee now admits she has no direct knowledge of the claims, and the neighbor referenced in the post, Kimberly Newton, said she also heard the story from an acquaintance and not her daughter.
But before the confusing back-and-forth was resolved — with police also confirming no reports had been filed about the pets being eaten — the rumor went viral.
‘It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,’ Erika Lee told NBC News – after the wild conspiracy even found its way into Donald Trump’s presidential debate material.
Pictured: Springfield, Ohio, where wild rumors spread about migrants eating cats and dogs
Erika Lee, 35, admitted that she heard rumors of Haitian migrants eating cats in her town through her neighbor Kimberly Newton (pictured), who heard from a friend, who heard from the alleged cat herself.
Lee’s Facebook post caused panic on social media after the image was circulated around X, where he warned Haitian migrants hanging cats ‘from branches like you would do deer for meat, and they carve them up to eat them.’
‘I’ve been told they’ve done this to dogs, they’ve done it in Snyder Park with ducks and geese,’ he continued, claiming ‘I was told the latter by rangers and police.’
‘Please keep an eye on this animal,’ he signed out of the post.
The post caught the attention of conservatives, with many seizing on footage of an American woman allegedly stomping on a cat’s head before eating the animal in a wild video that was mistaken for the Haitian migrant community.
Lee now says he never expected his post to ‘get past Springfield’, and has since deleted the post because he didn’t expect it to cause a national scandal.
Conservatives also seized on footage of an American woman allegedly stomping on a cat’s head before eating the animal in a wild video blamed on the Haitian migrant community.
Lee first admitted to the Newsguard that he heard rumors of Haitian migrants eating cats in his town through his neighbor Kimberly Newton, who heard through a friend, who heard from the alleged owner of the cat.
Newton, when asked, said he was ‘not sure I’m the most reliable source.’
‘I don’t know anyone who has lost a cat,’ she told NewsGuard, a company that fights misinformation. ‘I have no proof.’
He said the owner of the cat was ‘an acquaintance of a friend’. Newton originally heard from his friend, who had heard from ‘sources he had’ before he told Lee, who then sent him about it.
Newton also clarified that his source was not through his daughter, as Lee claimed.
The city of Springfield, Ohio (pictured) has become a flashpoint in the presidential race, with unfounded rumors even tying JD Vance and Donald Trump.
While city officials say there is no evidence that Springfield’s pets are in danger, local residents say there is a problem online.
“In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we would like to clarify that there are no credible reports or specific claims of pets being hurt, harmed, or abused by individuals in the immigrant community,” Springfield officials said. said.
Although Ohio authorities insisted that there were no reports to investigate, the rumors circulated widely enough that the two men at the top of the Republican ticket echoed them.
JD Vance addressed the rumors on X’s account, writing: ‘Last month, I raised the issue of illegal Haitian immigrants who are draining social services and generally causing chaos in Springfield, Ohio. Current reports indicate that people have been kidnapped and eaten by people who are not in this country. Where is our border tsar?’
A day later, Trump would repeat the same statement during the debate, which was broadcast to 67 million Americans.
The post went viral nationally and even landed on the debate stage, where Republican candidate Donald Trump (pictured at the debate) claimed the rumor was fact, although moderators said officials had found no evidence. The debate was broadcast to 67 million people
Lee was ‘surprised’ to see what was shared on Facebook as far as the former president was concerned.
‘Honestly, it blew me away,’ he told NewsGuard. ‘I didn’t think it would explode into the presidency.’
Despite her 15-minutes of fame, she said she has not ‘obviously followed the news much at all.’
“I just look at things like on Facebook, what pops up in my news feed, or what other people share about things they’ve read,” he said.
He also reiterated that all he was trying to do was tell people, ‘and not say’ Haiti as a whole (that) is bad.
