{"id":49765,"date":"2024-09-14T17:03:51","date_gmt":"2024-09-14T21:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=49765"},"modified":"2024-09-14T17:24:55","modified_gmt":"2024-09-14T21:24:55","slug":"ohio-woman-who-sparked-rumors-about-haitian-migrants-eating-pet-cats-and-dogs-in-springfield-breaks-her-silence-amid-fears-for-her-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/09\/14\/ohio-woman-who-sparked-rumors-about-haitian-migrants-eating-pet-cats-and-dogs-in-springfield-breaks-her-silence-amid-fears-for-her-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio woman who sparked rumors about Haitian migrants eating pet cats and dogs in Springfield breaks her silence amid ‘fears for her safety’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

READ MORE: Read the social media posts that sparked the ‘eating pets’ rumors<\/a>   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Springfield, Ohio, woman who sparked rumors about Haitian migrants eating pets says she is filled with regret and insists she never intended to target the Haitian community. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Erika Lee, 35, spoke out after she warned locals in a Facebook<\/a> group that her ‘neighbor informed me that her daughter’s friend lost her cat’, only to find the pet strung up ‘from a branch’ outside the home of a Haitian family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Lee now admits that she had no firsthand knowledge of the claims, and the neighbor referenced in the post, Kimberly Newton, revealed that she also heard the story from an acquaintance and not her daughter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But before the confusing back-and-forth was resolved – with police also insisting no reports have been filed over pets being eaten – the rumor went viral. <\/p>\n\n\n

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‘It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,’ Erika Lee told NBC News<\/a> – after the wild conspiracy even found its way into Donald Trump<\/a>‘s presidential debate material. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee’s Facebook post sparked panic across social media after screenshots were circulated around X, in which she warned Haitian migrants were hanging cats ‘from a branch like you’d do a deer for butchering, and they were carving it up to eat.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘I’ve been told they are doing this to dogs, they have been doing it at Snyder Park with the ducks and geese,’ she continued, claiming to be ‘told that last bit by rangers and police.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Please keep a close eye on these animals,’ she signed off the post. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The post caught the eye of conservatives, with many also seizing upon footage of an American woman who allegedly stomped on a cat’s head before eating the animal<\/a> in a wild video that was falsely attributed to the Haitian migrant community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n