Bild journalists talked about how a fake story appeared about immigrants supposedly eating domestic animals in the United States.
“They eat dogs. Those who came here eat cats,” Donald Trump said during the debate, referring to migrants who arrived in the United States.
This statement provoked laughter from Trump’s opponent Kamala Harris and became the subject of heated discussions on social media. It is noteworthy that the rumor that immigrants supposedly ate domestic animals was already debunked before the debate and turned out to be false.
This story was started by American resident Erica Lee, who started the rumor via Facebook. In her post, she said that her friend’s daughter had lost her cat, which was allegedly seen in a tree in front of the Haitian neighbors’ home. Lee suggested that the migrants intended to eat the animal, comparing it to the methods used to kill animals. She said she had also heard that the migrants were allegedly eating dogs, ducks and geese in the park, citing police and park rangers.
Although Erica Lee later deleted her post, the message has since gone viral and was picked up by some media outlets. Trump’s aide JD Vance also mentioned the rumor in a post on Platform X (formerly Twitter). Later, Trump himself raised the issue at the national debate, where it was heard by 67 million viewers.
When the host reminded Trump that the rumor had been debunked, he insisted that he saw it “on TV.” At the same time, Lee explained that the story about the missing cat came to him from his friend Kimberly Newton, who, in turn, learned it from a distant acquaintance.
Cursor previously reported on who Israelis would vote for in the US elections.
