My Thoughts on “They’re Eating the Pets.”

It’s all anyone is talking about, and it’s not even true.

It probably started as a Facebook post. A rumor suggesting immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were stealing and killing pets to eat. And then it went mainstream when it was brought up on national television in front of millions of viewers. 

It’s not just that “they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the dogs,” is an untrue claim, one that they know is baseless, it’s that this isn’t the first time anti-immigrant fervor has reached this fever pitch. 

Why is this even a topic of conversation?

Here’s a direct quote from the presidential debate on September 10th: “In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating -- they're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country. And it's a shame.”