Why Republican Politicians Keep Claiming Immigrants Eat Cats and Dogs

A few lines stood out from the first presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump last night: One of them Former President Trump’s bizarre proclamation that: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people who came here, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people who live there.”

The former president, of course, was perpetuating a talking point that has been circulating among top Republicans this week: that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating cats and dogs. This despite the fact that Springfield police have not received “any reports related to pets being stolen and eaten.” According to the Springfield-Sun News(The source of the misinformation appears to be a viral post from a local Facebook group claiming that a person who had lost their cat found it “hanging from a branch at a Haitian neighbor’s house and being butchered to be eaten.”) Debate moderator David Muir fact-checked Trump on this point, presenting the city manager’s statement that this was not actually happening, to which the presidential candidate responded, “People on TV are saying ‘they took my dog ​​and used him for food. ’”

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, shared Similar sentiments on X on Monday: “Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos throughout Springfield, Ohio. Reports now show that people’s pets have been kidnapped and eaten by people who should not be in this country. Where is our border czar?” X’s accounts of both Texas senators Ted Cruz and the Republican House Judiciary Committee I’ve also shared related racist sentiments and memes about Republicans protecting cats.

In June, the Biden administration extended The temporary protected status of up to 309,000 Haitian immigrants now living in the United States. Following these protections, Republicans have launched criticism of the Haitian immigrant community, reinforcing the position of the Republican Party. practice of reducing the lives of immigrant communities to memes and racist political jargon to feed the party’s political platform. Republican politicians who circulate the cat-eating myth have turned the Very memed program line Community — “I can excuse racism, but I do not tolerate cruelty to animals” — in a campaign theme.

With this rhetoric, the GOP is picking from the most predictable xenophobic playbook and invoking an old scaremongering strategy: the idea that immigrants “eat pets” is meant to signal their backwardness, danger, and inferiority; in turn, it justifies the GOP’s efforts to limit immigration. For those who perpetuate this false narrative, the truth has taken a backseat to the intended message: that immigrants are not “like us” and therefore pose a threat to hard-won American lives. The dichotomy being created is that of white “Americans” with household pets like Fluffy and Fido as family members, and immigrants as those who trample on what is considered cherished.

Immigrants have been subjected to this racist rhetoric about food consistently throughout American history. In 1883, The New York Times sediment The question was, “Do Chinese eat rats?” It continued, “A large portion of the community implicitly believes that Chinese love rats like Westerners love poultry.” The article in question was about a libel suit in which a New York City doctor claimed that “Chinese” in New York City had “killed and cooked rats and cats in their yard,” a claim vehemently denied by the Chinese grocery store owner in question.

Myths surrounding immigrants and food have persisted in the American political canon. As Soleil Ho writes in a 2018 Taste article:Do you eat dog?”, while some Asian cultures have indeed eaten dogs, this is an atypical practice, as most people view dogs as pets. Racist and antiquated narratives cast a huge shadow over East and Southeast Asian communities in the West, with Koreans, Chinese, Vietnamese and Filipinos often targeted for accusations of dog eating.

These racist tropes derive, in part, from the Chinese Exclusion ActThe U.S. Immigration Act, which restricted the entry of Chinese workers into the U.S., passed in 1882, is considered a major turning point in the U.S.’s transition from a country with an open immigration policy to one with more restrictions. Stories of Chinese people eating rats and cats and of Chinese restaurants serving “mystery meat” – a haunting spectre – represented Growing skepticism about new arrivals to the country. Much like the rhetoric of immigrants “stealing” jobs today, the Chinese Exclusion Act was largely Motivated by Economic concerns about an influx of Chinese workers taking jobs away from American workers.

In a chapter on dog meat in the book Dubious gastronomyRobert Ji-Song Ku writes about the cultural deployment of disgust: “Foods—and the people who eat them—that we mutually find disgusting may be the source of a social bond that distinguishes the group (or our group) of the external group (or his group), a marker not only to preserve ethnic, racial and class boundaries, but also to create new ones.” This is the political function of accusing immigrants of eating cats, dogs, rats and anything else that a “good American” considers unacceptable.

Food has often been turned into such a weapon. One need only recall how the Wuhan wet markets were discussed during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was talk of eating bats. It was often invoked as the cause of the outbreak; it is a way of pointing fingers and suggesting that certain lives (lives of immigrants and people of color around the world) were worth less than others.

When the Igorot people of the Philippines were exhibited at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, their ritual practice of eating dogs, which was A rare event in the Philippines — was emphasized and was staged for visitors who viewed the Igorots as zoo animals. The exhibit’s design was as astonishing as it was strategic. By portraying the Igorots as backward savages, it also presented the United States as a civilizing force and its people as civilized by comparison. This ideology echoed the precedent set by William Howard Taft, who categorized Filipinos as the U.S.’s “little brown brother” during his time as governor-general of the Philippines, which had just become an American colony.

This ideology also establishes a heated relationship in which immigrants and other countries are, at best, buffoons in need of constant resources and education from the U.S., and at worst, a dangerous risk to the American way of life.

The experience of Haitian asylum seekers in North and South America has already been dehumanizing. In June 2023, Amnesty International called to The Americas must end “discrimination against blacks, including race-based torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, against the Haitian people seeking international safety and protection.” PBS Report 2021 Nicole Phillips, legal director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, described an “anti-Haitian stigma” that dates back to the early 19th century, when enslaved Haitians rebelled against France, referring to racist policies against Haitian immigrants. has reportedThe instability from which many of these people now seek asylum has direct links to the US occupation of Haiti and the overthrow of its elected officials.

Food is a very everyday thing, and that is precisely where its power lies. What Republicans are suggesting is: if they don’t eat like us, how can we trust them? This rhetoric only serves to further dehumanize immigrants (who are always black, brown or Asian) and ultimately position white Americans as superior and their lifestyles as worth protecting. We’ve heard it before; Republicans believe we will fall for it again.