Ohio police dispute new allegations immigrants are eating pets in Dayton

Police in Dayton, Ohio, have said there is no evidence that immigrants are eating pets, calling new allegations that emerged online on Saturday “irresponsible.” 

The police statement was issued hours after a new video and article alleged African immigrants in Dayton were seen preparing to grill dead cats. The claim was shared by Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican vice presidential nominee, Donald Trump Jr., and others on X.

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.” 

The new claim followed baseless allegations that Haitian immigrants were abducting and eating pets in Springfield, a city less than 30 miles from Dayton. Former President Donald Trump repeated the claim in Tuesday night’s debate, despite city officials saying there was no evidence of this happening. 

On Saturday, Vance doubled down on the claims that immigrants were eating pets, sharing the new allegation on X. 

“Kamala Harris and her media apparatchiks should be ashamed of themselves,” Vance wrote. “Another ‘debunked’ story that turned out to have merit.”

Since Trump’s debate claims, there have been several bomb threats made against schools and hospitals in the Springfield area. On Saturday, Springfield’s Wittenberg University announced that it would be “taking extreme precautions” after receiving an on-campus shooting threat via email which “targeted Haitian members of our community.”

In response, the FBI told CBS News in a statement that it was “working in coordination with the Springfield Police Department and Wittenberg University to determine the credibility of recent threats, share information, and take appropriate investigative action.”

New claim

Christopher Rufo, a conservative writer and activist, published the new claim on Substack. The allegations are based on a video originally posted to social media in August 2023. 

CBS News confirmed the original video was first posted to social media in August 2023 by a man who lives in Dayton, Ohio. CBS News reached out to the man for comment but did not hear back on Saturday afternoon.

The video shows what appears to be animal carcasses on a grill. The man filming the footage alleges, without evidence, that they are cats. 

“What is this they got on the grill?” the man says in the video. When two cats appear near the grill, the man jokes that the cats “better get missing — looks like his homey’s on the grill!” 

Rufo said he spoke to the man who filmed the video, and the man believes the carcasses were cats. Rufo said he worked on the story with IM-1776, an online magazine, and one of their reporters visited the building where the incident was alleged to have happened. The reporter spoke to neighbors, who said that African immigrants lived in the building. Neighbors told the reporter they believed the people who owned the grill were also African immigrants, although the residents’ origin or identity wasn’t verified by CBS News.

The new allegation also prompted backlash and skepticism, with many users saying the carcasses look more like chickens. 

CBS News reached out to multiple veterinary experts for their opinion on what type of carcass is on the grill. One expert said the video quality was too low to identify the animal. Another vet also said the video was poor quality but noted the legs looked “weirdly distended” and in his opinion, did not look like cat legs.

Dayton Mayor Jeffrey J. Mims, Jr. also issued a statement, calling the claim “totally false and dangerously irresponsible of politicians aiming to sow division and fear.” Mims said there had been “absolutely zero reports of this type of activity.”