More than a third of voters believe that Haitian immigrants are eating cats, geese and other pets in America, according to an exclusive poll for DailyMail.com.
The claims have been widely debunked yet have still taken on a life of their own, fanned by former President Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance, who says that they highlight disruption caused by unchecked immigration—even if the details of the stories may not be true.
The White House has condemned the rumors as dangerous misinformation.
But the poll of 1,000 likely voters conducted by J.L. Partners reveals just how the lurid tales have been swallowed by the American public.
Some 17 percent of respondents said they definitely believed the stories to be true, with another 19 percent saying they thought they were probably true.
J.L. Partners polled 1000 likely voters to get their views on fake claims that Haitians were eating pets. The results carry a 3 percent margin of error
The numbers go down, however, as the questions become more local.
Overall only 10 percent thought Haitian immigrants were definitely eating pets in their state.
And that number declines to seven percent when voters were asked whether it was happening in their local area.
The data set was too small to tease out state-by-state results across the country.
But in those states with enough respondents all but one had a plurality of people saying they did not think Haitian immigrants were eating pets there.
The exception was Georgia, where 51 percent said they believed it was happening there.
Republicans are more likely to believe the claims. Some 58 percent said they thought the reports were true.
James Johnson, co-founder of J.L. Partners, said: The fact that fewer than half of voters think the story is false speaks volumes: Misinformation can sow doubt, especially when it comes from a voice that half of Americans trust in former President Trump.
We could say the same for statements from Harris too, for example saying that Trump supports a federal abortion ban.
Donald Trump was baited into delivering wild claims about immigrants during his debate with Kamala Harris last weekend, including that they were eating pets
Trumps Hispanic support crashed after the debate, according to our poll results
But he added that Trumps switch from attacking the issue of immigration to apparently attacking immigrants themselves could be hurting him.
The overall poll of voter intentions showed that Harris had overtaken him for the first time fueled in part by a 17-point dip in Hispanic support.
Trump managed to pull in many Hispanic voters in 2020 who were repelled by his message in 2016: which seemed to criticize immigrants themselves rather than immigration, he said.
Looking at the decline of Hispanic support in our poll, we have to ask whether those concerns are coming back to the surface in 2024.
The idea that immigrants are eating pets is not a new American urban legend.
But it appeared to explode back into view with a Facebook post made by a resident of Springfield, Ohio. She posted about her neighbors missing cat, linking the disappearance to Haitian immigrants.
A photograph of a man holding a goose in Columbus, Ohio, further excited interest.
Police and local authorities said there was no truth in the rumors, but Vance, who is U.S. Senator for Ohio, took things to another level.
Springfield, Ohio, has been in the spotlight for the past week after the wild claims emerged
The image of the man has been used to fuel claims that migrants in the state have been eating wild animals and pets
Despite the claims being unconfirmed, Ohio senator and VP candidate JD Vance has repeated rumors that Haitian migrants have been eating peoples pets
Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldnt be in this country, he posted on X last week.
Trump then repeated the claim on primetime TV during his debate with Kamala Harris.
In Springfield, theyre eating the dogs, he said. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats.
Vance brushed off multiple fact checks and denials.
The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes, he told CNN on Sunday. If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then thats what Im going to do.
Zeve Sanderson, executive director of the Center for Social Media and Politics at New York University, said the partisan divide over who believed the claims showed a classic pattern in the spread of fake information.
Trump supporters have shared AI generated memes of the former president
An AI-generated Trump hugs a duck and cat
There are both supply and demand-side dynamics that occur with the spread of false claims, he said.
Elites with strong credibility within their party spread claims, which are believed at higher rates by party members due, in part, to their partisan identity; elites are then incentivized to further spread those false narratives that generate positive signals.
It happens on both sides of the political divide, he added, shown by the number of Democrats who believed stories about Vance and a couch.
This time there are real world effects. The spread of the rumors has instilled fear in Haitian-Americans who say it is the latest part in a long-running history of slurs
On Tuesday, state troopers were deployed to protect the schools in Springfield where the claims originated after a string of bomb threats.
J.D. Vances deliberate creation of false and inflammatory claims has had severe and dangerous consequences for Haitian migrants, who are now facing hateful speech and physical threats, posted Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, the only Haitian-American in Congress.
We refuse to overlook this—our country deserves better.