The baseless claim that illegal immigrants from Haiti ate pets in a small Ohio town was repeated by Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, but officials told BBC Verify there were “no credible reports” that this actually happened.

In a post on X on Monday, Vance claimed that illegal immigrants from Haiti were “causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio.”

“Reports say the pets were kidnapped and eaten by people who weren’t supposed to be in this country. Where is our border czar?” he wrote, referring to a title Republicans use to criticize Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.

According to X’s figures, the post had been viewed over 9 million times by Tuesday.

John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, called Vance’s comments “dangerous” and a “conspiracy theory based on an element of racism.”

The claim appears to have come from multiple sources and has been condensed into a coherent – ​​albeit unsubstantiated – story by pro-Trump social media accounts.

At a meeting of the Springfield City Commission on August 27 a local resident who describes himself as a social media influencer began a speech against Haitian immigrants.

He cited a long list of complaints, including that they slaughtered park ducks to eat them, and accused city officials of being paid to settle immigrants, but he offered no evidence to support these allegations.

An allegation about the killing of a cat by Haitian immigrants was made on Facebook post about crime in Springfieldand attributed by the author of the description to the friend of a neighbor’s daughter.

The demands were also reflected in a Photo posted on Reddit of a man wearing something that looks like a dead goose in Columbus, Ohio.

Separately, a news report At the end of August, reports also circulated on the Internet about a woman who was arrested for killing and eating a cat.

Many right-wing commentators identified the woman as Haitian and pointed to the report as evidence of the baseless claim that Haitian immigrants had been involved in similar activities.

However, the incident occurred in Canton, Ohio, about 2.5 hours from Springfield, and her nationality is not mentioned in the news report.

Canton police told the BBC: “We have not dealt with complaints from Haitian immigrants at all.”

In addition to Vance, Elon Musk also posted memes referring to the baseless claims, which have been viewed millions of times.

Charlie Kirk, CEO of the conservative activist group Turning Point, said: “Residents of Springfield, Ohio, report that Haitians are eating their pets.”

These allegations were also referred to on the official social media channels of the Republican Party, such as the account of the Republican House Judiciary Committee.

The account was an AI-generated image of former President Trump hugs a duck and a cat with the caption “Protect our ducks and kitties in Ohio!”

This post has been viewed nearly 70 million times.

BBC Verify spoke to the Springfield City Commission about the allegations.

Authorities said: “There are no credible reports or specific allegations that pets have been harmed, injured or mistreated by immigrants.”

On Tuesday, Vance appeared to walk back his previous comment, saying on X: “It is of course possible that all of these rumors turn out to be false.”

The BBC has asked the Trump team for comment.

Springfield, a rust belt city in southwest Ohio, has a population of about 60,000 and has been visited by thousands of immigrants in recent years.

Many of them are from Haiti, and city officials say as many as 20,000 people have made Springfield their home in recent years, reversing a long decline that saw the city’s population drop by more than 20,000 over the past 60 years.

The newcomers have given new life to local industries, but they have also put a strain on public services. Mr. Vance, a senator from Ohio who grew up about an hour from Springfield, has spoken about the city repeatedly during his campaign.