The governor said the internet ‘can be quite crazy sometimes.’
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine dismissed claims that some Haitian or other immigrants have eaten pets in Springfield, the Ohio city at the center of a nationwide immigration controversy, while the state’s attorney general has said there is at least one credible claim that immigrants have captured geese.
In an interview with CBS News, DeWine, whose family operates a charity in Haiti that has built a network of schools in the impoverished country, was asked whether anyone in Ohio was eating dogs or cats illegally.
DeWine responded, “This is something that came up on the internet, and the internet can be quite crazy sometimes.”
“Look, the mayor … of Springfield says there’s no truth in that,“ DeWine said. ”They have no evidence of that at all. So if we go with what the mayor says, he knows his city.”
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said on Sept. 11 that there are credible claims that immigrants have captured geese for food.
In a social media post, Yost said there is “a recorded police call from a witness who saw immigrants capturing geese for food in Springfield.” He said that citizens testified to the city council and that those people “would be competent witnesses in court.”
Over the past week, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), the Republican vice presidential nominee, has said multiple times on social media that there have been reports of Haitian or other illegal immigrants eating pets as well as ducks.
During the Sept. 10 presidential debate, former President Donald Trump referred to those reports while speaking about illegal immigration in the United States.
A Trump campaign website page, citing The Federalist, said that a police call in August included a local resident reporting that Haitian people were carrying four geese in Springfield.
“I’m sitting here, I’m riding on the trail, I’m going to my orientation for my job today, and I see a group of Haitian people, there was about four of ’em, they all had geese in their hand,” the caller tells a dispatcher in the audio recording of the phone call.
