JD Vance’s wild post on Dayton immigrants cooking cats slammed by officials: ‘Just chicken, you weirdo,’ say residents

JD Vance faces backlash after sharing a video alleging immigrants in Dayton are cooking cats. Officials and residents have denounced the claims as baseless

Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance has stirred controversy once again after sharing a now-viral video claiming immigrants in Dayton are allegedly cooking cats. The video shows skinned animals on a grill and cats in a yard, fueling unfounded rumours that migrants are abducting and eating pets, similar to the claims he made for Springfield earlier.

JD Vance faces backlash after sharing a video alleging immigrants in Dayton are cooking cats.

The Ohio senator then went on to criticise 'Kamala Harris and her media apparatchiks.' However, this time it seems things have backfired, as Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims and local residents have strongly refuted the claims, denouncing them as 'baseless' and criticising the sensational nature of the video.

JD Vance shares video of immigrants cooking cats

Since the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump began in Pennsylvania, the internet has been abuzz with Republican claims about pets being eaten, sparking numerous memes and song parodies. Springfield in particular is getting scrutinised due to unproven allegations that Haitian immigrants are killing pets. Now, JD Vance has shifted his focus about 30 miles from Springfield.

On Saturday morning, Christopher F. Rufo shared a video on X that was all over the place, allegedly showing cats being cooked on a charcoal grill in someone's backyard. "We have discovered that migrants are, in fact, eating cats in Ohio," the caption reads. "We have verified, with multiple witnesses and visual cross-references, that African migrants in Dayton, the next city over from Springfield, barbecued these cats last summer."

The video got so popular, it had over 33,000 likes and 15,000 retweets by the time Saturday afternoon rolled around. Some of the retweets came from Vance, who's known for spreading similar stories in past and Donald Trump Jr.

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

JD Vance gets slammed for ‘baseless’ claims

Responding to the video, Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims issued a statement denouncing the claims as ‘baseless.’ “This claim is totally false and dangerously irresponsible of politicians aiming to sow division and fear,” he said. “There have been absolutely zero reports of this type of activity, and spreading such misinformation undermines our status as a welcoming city,” Mims added.

Dayton Police Chief Kamran Afzal also released a statement strongly refuting, “the irresponsible information being put out on social media or other avenues about our immigrant community."

“In Springfield, they are eating the dogs; the people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people who live there,” Trump claimed during the debate, fueling Vance’s spread of rumours about Haitian immigrants."

Dayton residents slam JD Vance’s claims of eating pets

“I find it strange that a self-professed ‘hillbilly’ doesn’t know what whole chickens look like,” a user commented on the video. “What a weirdo, its clearly chicken and he can’t see it, weird seriously,” wrote another. “how do you not know what chickens look like with their legs attached,” a third commented. “Dude’s never seen chicken that wasn’t dino-nugget shaped,” a fourth chimed in.

Although officials declined to comment, a source close to Vance told The Independent that they do not believe the carcasses on the grill are chickens. The video, shot last year in Dayton, was covered in a follow-up piece by Rufo on his site. He mentioned that the person who made the video said the cat-eaters were "some Africans who live right next to my kid's mom." Rufo's piece says that these claims were verified by “multiple witnesses and visual cross-references.”