Dangerous disinformation spreads from racist extremists to mainstream political discourse.
Warning: This analysis contains highly offensive and potentially triggering language and imagery. Where possible, slur words are marked with asterisks, but in cases where that may make the content unclear, offensive language is cited.
Over the past week, thoroughly debunked racist claims that Haitian migrants are stealing and eating their neighbors’ pets in Springfield, Ohio, have gone mainstream after a resident made a post on Facebook claiming that “their neighbor’s daughter’s friend had lost her cat and found it hanging from a branch at a Haitian neighbor’s home being carved up to be eaten.” Because of this hatred, Haitian immigrants living in Springfield are already reporting getting their cars vandalized, windows broken, and leaving the city out of fear of being attacked. On September 12, multiple city, county, and school buildings closed after a bomb threat was issued “to multiple facilities around Springfield,” according to a city statement. The neo-Nazi organization Blood Tribe played a crucial role in making Springfield a hotly-discussed topic in the U.S. and a target for the transnational far right, taking advantage of how quickly fringe and harmful content reaches the mainstream.
Like with anything that makes the news, the transnational far right amplified the false claims, trying to stoke racism against Haitians by spreading disinformation, making vile racist comments, and even attempting to recruit new members into their organizations. One widely-shared article about an American citizen, assumed to be a recent migrant by the far right, from Canton, Ohio, who was accused of killing and eating a cat, made the rounds, with the far right hoping readers would believe this was done by a Haitian refugee. The Springfield Police Division has since clarified that they received no reports related to pets being stolen and eaten, as of September 9. However, this isn’t stopping extremists from stoking anti-immigrant hatred.
The foremost of these organizations is the openly neo-Nazi Blood Tribe, led by former marine Christopher Pohlhaus. The Blood Tribe formed online in 2021, with the group holding private white supremacist gatherings before eventually going public with their hatred at anti-LGBTQ+ protests in 2023. Blood Tribe are still actively protesting, and are usually recognizable by their red and black attire, swastika flags, and face masks.
One of the Blood Tribe’s leading figures, Drake Berentz, who goes by “Nathaniel Higgers,” a derivative of “Nate Higgers” (switching the initials turns the phrase into a hateful slur), at a Springfield City Council meeting on August 27, gave a “word of warning” that the continued migration of Haitians will cause “crime and savagery” to “increase… and with it, public frustration, threat and anger.” Blood Tribe claims to be “on the ground in Springfield weekly,”, including a march on August 10. They have a strong online presence on fringe platforms, and post their propaganda videos pandering to racists with titles like “BLUTSTAMM (German for Blood Tribe) MARCHES ON SPRINGFIELD OHIO IN RESPONSE TO NGO FUNDED INVASION OF HATIAN (sic) SAVAGES.”
Blood Tribe’s Ohio chapter shared a post on September 6 saying that “locals report that [Haitians are] now killing and eating peoples’ pets.” It was only a few days after this that other far-right groups and mainstream figures began to spread these unsubstantiated claims.
Blood Tribe Ohio shares an “update” saying that Haitians are “killing and eating peoples’ pets” on September 6, days before the unsubstantiated claims went viral (Source: Telegram)
The Blood Tribe were elated to take credit for spreading hatred against Haitians, with Berentz himself saying on September 11 that “[Blood Tribe] pushed Springfield into the public consciousness.” The post was also shared by Blood Tribe leader Pohlhaus, who followed up by agreeing with Berentz on his assumption. After the fake news about Haitians eating peoples’ pets started to gain momentum, they capitalized on their new-found attention and began sharing racist posts in the hopes of recruiting new members. Pohlhaus, on his Telegram channel, shared several screenshots of people claiming, with no proof, that Haitians have been “caught” killing and eating several animals.
Blood Tribe shares a likely AI-generated photo of a man putting a cat in a pot, captioned “haitians will EAT your PETS” (Source: Gab)
When not spreading hate against Haitians, Pohlhaus has been sharing calls-to-action on his Telegram channel, including a post from another apparent Blood Tribe member advertising the group and encouraging others to follow their work. Later, he said “marchers,” referring to the Blood Tribe and their affinity for in-person marches and protests, need “ideological warriors.” In an attempt to motivate followers to offline action, Polhaus shared an image of Nazi-era Germany depicting a “volk,” a term used by Hitler to describe the German people, saying the Nazis weren’t just “random podcast listeners,” “a comment section, a book club, Twitter followers, [Telegram] subs, and YouTube clicks.”
Pohlhaus shares a post encouraging people to take their activism offline, and to create a “volk.” (Source: Telegram)
Proud Boys and Others Share Blood Tribe’s Narrative
On September 10, the Proud Boys Ohio state chapter shared a racist “meme” (i.e., image, video, or text-based joke posted on the internet) showing a fake children’s book cover called “Haitians in Ohio: If not food, why food shaped?” On September 11, several Proud Boys chapters shared a YouTube video titled “Springfield, Ohio Migrant issue not FAKE NEWS.” These included the Bourbon City Proud Boys (based in Kentucky), Legend Valley Proud Boys (based in Ohio), and Columbus Proud Boys. The video, spread by these groups to spread fear about Haitians eating people’s pets, doesn’t substantiate those claims, but takes issue with Haitians supposed poor driving ability, ability to speak English, and being “rude.”
Proud Boys Ohio shares a racist image representing a children’s book about Haitians eating cats (Source: Telegram)
Other groups like the neo-Nazi Active Club Ohio took the opportunity to make generally racist comments against Haitians, calling them “cannibals and voodoo shamans.” The host of the neo-Nazi podcast “Achtung! Amerikaner” tried to capitalize on the racist theories by finding “an Ohioan to do an episode about the stuff happening in Springfield.” A self-proclaimed “pro-white” news channel on Telegram shared a post claiming “Haitian migrants…eat the pets, ducks and geese” while “posing a danger to every other pedestrian and driver” by “causing accidents everywhere.”
Amerikaner attempts to capitalize on the anti-Haitian racism by making a podcast episode about the unsubstantiated rumors (Source: Telegram)
Internationally, German far-right multimedia company COMPACT Magazine said claims of Haitians eating pets were dismissed as fake, but doubled-down on their racism by asserting that videos posted online “prove that this is not a made-up story.” They went on to say that eating other people’s pets is “particularly common among illegal immigrants from Haiti,” and that this could become a “decisive issue in the election.” Aside from the lack of evidence supporting the theory that Haitians are stealing and eating people’s pets, Haitian nationals are generally covered under Temporary Protected Status, which was extended by the Department of Homeland Security in July 2024, under certain conditions. MetaInfo, an Austrian Identitarian Telegram “News” channel, made a post claiming that Haitians are “eat[ing] local wildlife, including pets” in Springfield. They also shared an image of a man carrying a goose, but the image originated in late July from a Reddit thread in the r/Columbus subreddit, dedicated to the city of Columbus, not Springfield. There is no indication in the thread that the man is Haitian, a refugee, or undocumented.
Mainstream Far Right Figures Embrace Fake News
Mainstream figures on the far right, especially on Twitter, jumped on the racist bandwagon. On September 8, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk posted about Haitians supposedly eating people’s pets, calling it part of the “mass immigration replacement plan,” referring to the racist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory which has inspired acts of violence worldwide. Elon Musk, owner of Twitter, amplified the false rhetoric by replying “Apparently, people’s pet cats are being eaten.” On September 9, far-right influencers Tim Pool and Benny Johnson, who both work for Tenet Media, and are under investigation by the Department of Justice for being “part of a Kremlin-orchestrated influence operation targeting the 2024 US election,” made hateful posts targeting Haitians on Twitter. Pool reposted a tweet featuring the aforementioned image originating in Columbus, which claimed a “Haitian dude” was “walking around with an entire goose.” Johnson, in a similar vein, posted a YouTube video of his webshow called “Migrants EATING Pet CATS and DUCKS?!” Johnson would go on to share another video of supposed eye-witness accounts of Haitians eating pets, only for the first interviewee to call a Black person a “fucking sorry sand monkey.” An article on Steven Crowder’s website, Louder with Crowder, was released called “Springfield, Ohio Residents Warn Haitians Are Decapitating Ducks And Eating Them.” Like many of the others, Crowder’s website used the image from the r/Columbus subreddit.
On September 10, MAGA influencer Jack Posobiec made a post on his Telegram channel claiming that “residents of Springfield have been calling the police about pets getting eaten and the police just shrug and say they can’t prove a crime so they don’t pursue it or write reports.” Springfield police have already stated that they’ve received “no reports” of people’s pets being stolen and eaten. On September 11, American Renaissance, a white nationalist organization led by Jared Taylor, credited “meme warriors on X” (X referring to Twitter) for “nationaliz[ing] the issue of mass Haitian immigration to Springfield, Ohio,” including instances of “animals being eaten.”
Thanks to the rapid spread of fake news on Telegram, fringe platforms like Gab, the mainstreaming of hatred on Twitter, and these platforms’ reluctance to moderate their content effectively, the Blood Tribe were successful in their campaign to get racists and more mainstream conservative figures across the country to demonize Haitians living in Springfield, Ohio. The normalization of hatred and dangerous rhetoric against immigrants has already manifested in several violent incidents globally this year, including some of Britain’s worst cases of racist violence, migrants being attacked in Portugal, and South Asians facing targeted harassment in Canada. While social media platforms refuse to address these issues, they only help to amplify the hatred used to justify violence.
