Republican activist Christopher Rufo has offered a $5,000 reward in order to fact-check claims that Haitian immigrants in an Ohio town were eating people’s pet cats, but had to amend its terms to prevent abuse.
Around 20,000 Haitian migrants have been settled in Springfield, a community of less than 60,000 between Dayton and Columbus, over the past four years.
At Tuesday’s US presidential debate, Republican candidate Donald Trump brought up the rumors that people’s pets have been going missing, and that the migrants were to blame. His running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, also said that Ohioans “have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country,” citing reports his office has received.
“Alright, let’s settle it: I will provide a $5,000 bounty to anyone who can provide my team with hard, verifiable evidence that Haitian migrants are eating cats in Springfield, Ohio. Deadline is Sunday. Go,” Rufo said Wednesday evening on X.
“I want to know the truth. Conservatives must be careful with the facts, and not let the narrative go beyond the evidence. Right now, the assumption is that this did not occur. But, if evidence emerges, it’s in the public interest to bring it forward,” he added.
The well-intentioned initiative had a major flaw that emerged in short order: most of the replies were people offering – seriously or in jest – to eat a cat in Springfield in order to collect the bounty.
“I’m off to Springfield, Ohio with my cat and a large pot. Five grand is five grand,” said one X user. “Does it count if we pay the Haitian migrants to eat the cat?” asked another. He was not the only one to realize that Rufo’s wording offered a “tremendous arbitrage opportunity,” in the words of one US lawyer.
It only took half an hour for Rufo to amend the terms of his bounty, noting that it “must be an incident that occurred prior to the presidential debate! No eating cats, people!”
So far, no one has come forth to provide the evidence that could qualify for Rufo’s bounty, although one of the respondents tried making the case with logic, rather than documentation.
“Ok, 1) Haitians eat cats and will tell you so themselves, 2) 20,000 Haitians were placed in Springfield, Ohio. Therefore, Haitians are eating cats in Springfield, Ohio,” argued a YouTuber by the name of ‘hoe math’. “The burden is now on you to prove that 20,000 people from a cat-eating culture suddenly magically stopped eating cats when placed on the magic dirt of the USA.”
Reports of Haitians eating wild birds and household pets disappearing have sparked a flood of political memes depicting Trump rescuing kittens and goslings from the cookpot. Meanwhile, Democrats have protested the “fake news” and insisted that accusations of cat-eating were simply racism.