Ohio
The Cat Eaters of Ohio
Donald Trump shocked audiences at this week’s presidential debate with the claim that foreign migrants were eating household pets in Springfield, Ohio, a small town currently reeling under the strain of an unprecedented number of new arrivals, mostly from Haiti. “They’re eating the dogs,” Trump said. “They’re eating the cats.”
Reactions on both sides were spirited. Conservative social media accounts created memes that portrayed Trump, dressed in camouflage, and toting heavy weapons, as the savior of innocent pets. There was even a viral TikTok trend, which chopped up Trump’s speech and set it to dance music. “They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating cats,” the music thumped. “Eat the cat! Eat, eat the cat!”
The establishment media was not amused. During the debate, ABC’s David Muir dismissed Trump’s rhetoric with his version of a fact check, citing the Springfield city manager’s statement that “there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.” Other publications went further, blasting the former president for spreading a “racist smear,” a “century-old stereotype,” and a “cat-eating conspiracy theory.”
So, is there any truth to the charge? We have conducted an exclusive investigation that reveals that, yes, in fact, some migrants in Ohio appear to have been “eating the cats,” though not exactly in the manner that Trump described.
Our investigation begins in a run-down neighborhood of Dayton, Ohio, the closest major city to Springfield, about a half-hour’s drive away. We identified a social media post, dated August 25, 2023, with a short video depicting what appear to be two skinned cats on top of a blue barbeque. “Yoooo the Africans wildn on Parkwood,” reads the text, referring to Parkwood Drive. The video then pans down to two live cats walking across the grass in front of a run-down fence, with a voice on the video warning: “There go a cat right there. His ass better get missin’, man. Look like his homies on the grill!”
We spoke with the author of the video, who asked to remain anonymous but confirmed its time, location, and authenticity. He told us that he was picking up his son last summer, when he noticed the unusual situation. “It was some Africans that stay right next door to my kid’s mother,” he said. “This African dude next door had the damn cat on the grill.”
We then identified the home by matching it to the visuals in the video and cross-referencing them with the eyewitness. When we knocked on the door of the first unit, a family answered, telling us they were from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and that all of the surrounding units were occupied by other African migrants.
One of the residents told us that her former neighbors, also from Africa, had lived in the adjacent unit until last month. They had a blue grill and the father would find meat in the neighborhood. “Her dad was going to find meat,” she said. “Her dad was going, holding a knife.” The current residents also showed us a blue grill of the same make and model as in the video, which the former neighbors had abandoned after they moved out. There were at least ten cats wandering around the complex and another resident complained that they were breeding on the property.
According to the original witness, whose son was friendly with the neighbors, there was no doubt about what happened last summer. “They was barbecuing the damn cat!” he said. His son’s mother had previously witnessed the family butchering a mammal on the street, but the cats on the barbeque put him in such a state of shock, he felt the need to film it.
To be clear: this single incident does not confirm every particularity of Trump’s statement. The town is Dayton, not Springfield; cats alone were on the grill, not cats and dogs. But it does break the general narrative peddled by the establishment media and its “fact checkers,” who insisted that this has never happened, and that any suggestion otherwise is somehow an expression of racism.
It takes only a single exception, however, to falsify a hypothesis, and the logical next step, for any honest broker, is to ask if it is happening more often, and elsewhere. It is not implausible. Many developing nations, including the Congo and Haiti, have traditions of animal sacrifice or consumption of what Americans would consider household pets. And if this occurred in Dayton, where the migrant population is relatively small, it could be going on down the road in Springfield, where it is relatively much larger.
Independent journalists are already on the hunt and could reveal more. The Daily Wire has dispatched a reporter to Springfield to investigate. The Federalist has published a police report with allegations that a group of Haitians emerged from a city trail with dead geese in hand. Ohio’s attorney general, Dave Yost, has backed up this claim, arguing that citizens with such firsthand knowledge “would be competent witnesses in court.”
There is a legitimate debate to be had about migration and culture. All immigrants bring with them a particular tradition, which, in the case of countries such as Haiti and the Congo, can include practices that many Americans find disturbing. This cultural divide causes understandable consternation for non-migrants living in the rougher parts of places like Dayton and Springfield. They don’t enjoy the luxury of many in the establishment media, who can maintain a safe distance, condescending to those who raise the alarm while not even bothering to investigate anything themselves.
These revelations do not mean that assimilation is impossible, but the establishment will need to engage in a more honest debate, rather than simply smearing critics as racists and conspiracy theorists. One can make the case for migration, but one cannot, at the same time, deny that it comes with costs—which, in this case, seem to include a pair of flayed cats on a blue barbeque in Dayton, Ohio.
Columbus City officials press conference on ICE
Columbus City officials press conference on ICE
Dozens of people gathered in below freezing temperatures Friday night, Dec. 19, to protest U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement officials’ presence in Columbus.
Protesters discovered where ICE officials were staying locally and showed up outside their hotel to blast music and disrupt their sleep, according to reports from social media, a witness, police and a hotel employee.
The music, mostly electronic dance music with heavy beats, began around 9 p.m. and didn’t cease for hours, said Brandon Baker, 36, who happened upon the scene after hearing and seeing activity.
He took a video and posted it on Facebook as he stood outside the Embassy Suites hotel on Corporate Exchange Drive on the Northeast Side near Westerville around 9:30 p.m.
“It’s important to recognize that Columbus is a melting pot and we’re not going to tolerate this kind of intolerance,” Baker said, of why he posted the video. He was also hoping more people might come.
In the nearly hour he was on scene, Baker said he saw approximately 50 people gathered outside grow to a group closer to 150. There were also people in parked cars honking their horns and five to seven police cars there, though he said police weren’t interacting with protesters. He also witnessed people leaving the hotel.
Columbus police said they were called around 9:20 p.m. on Dec. 19 due to noise complaints, but said there was no further information.
The protest followed several reports of increased ICE activity and arrests Dec. 17, 18 and 19 in Columbus, as well as a small group protest outside the Westerville ICE office earlier on Friday.
The increased ICE activity prompted responses from city officials, advocates and more earlier in the week. The response included Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther and Columbus police Chief Elaine Bryant saying no city resources would be used to help federal agents in immigration enforcement operations.
“It was a good symbol and a good thing to see Columbus kind of fighting back against this group of indivdiuals who have pretty much taken it upon themselves to terrorize people,” Baker said of the protest. “If we’re so anti-terrorism in the United States, why are we allowing something like this to even happen?”
On Dec. 18, an ICE spokesperson said in a prepared release: “ICE officers continue to arrest criminal illegal aliens and immigration violators in the city of Columbus, across Ohio, and throughout the United States.”
“These enforcement actions are part of ongoing efforts to uphold public safety and enforce federal immigration laws,” the statement said.
Some advocates said they feared the increased activity in Columbus in the past few days – including an estimated 15 to 20 arrests each day on Dec. 17 and Dec. 18 – might be the beginning of raids in other U.S. cities. In Chicago, ICE’s “Operation Midway Blitz” ended with 1,600 to 1,900 people arrested beginning in September, according to news reports.
The hotel had to refund at least a few guests, a hotel employee said. He confirmed ICE was staying at the hotel, but emphasized they are open to the public and do not have control over who stays there.
Baker’s video pans as someone states that people are blaring music outside the hotel to keep ICE awake.
“Everyone was doing everything they could to make noise,” Baker said. “The idea is to play the music and stuff as loud as possible to keep them from sleeping.”
It appeared that the music was coming from a bus with speakers attached, Baker said, but people were also playing trombones and trumpets and ringing cow bells.
People Baker spoke to said they were trying to “drown” out ICE and get them to leave.
“Columbus is done with this,” Baker said.
Underserved Communities Reporter Danae King can be reached at dking@dispatch.com or on X at @DanaeKing.
CANFIELD, Ohio (WJW) – Nobody took home the massive Powerball jackpot on Wednesday, but one Canfield man is still celebrating after purchasing a winning ticket worth $50,000.
According to Ohio Lottery, Bryan decided to try his luck after realizing the Powerball jackpot was over $1 billion. He bought a ticket from the Meijer grocery store on Boardman-Canfield Road in Boardman.
The next morning, Bryan woke up and checked the ticket, stunned to discover that he won $50,000.
After mandatory state and federal taxes, the lucky winner will take home more than $36,000.
Bryan told lottery officials that he doesn’t have specific plans for money yet, but the big win will certainly make for “a very good Christmas.”
It has been months since someone won the Powerball jackpot, which now sits at a massive $1.5 billion. There is also a cash option worth $689.3 million up for grabs.
The next drawing will be Saturday night at 11 p.m. Learn more about the Powerball right here.
A mom searching for answers about her son’s death in a car wreck won a victory on Dec. 19 when the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the Richland County Sheriff to release records to her.
The court ruled in a unanimous decision that Andrea Mauk is entitled to three sets of records withheld by the sheriff, with only Social Security numbers being redacted. Mauk will be awarded $2,000 in damages but will not receive attorney fees.
On June 23, 2023, 18-year-old Damon Mauk lost control of his 1998 Ford Mustang and slammed it into a tree. His mother wanted to piece together what happened, collect his belongings and grieve the loss of her child. She didn’t think she’d have to fight for public records and take her case to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Following the crash, Richland County Sheriff’s deputies, a township fire department and the Ohio State Highway Patrol responded.
During the investigation, a trooper told a deputy to leave Damon’s iPhone and wallet in the car, according to Mauk’s court filings. Instead, the deputy took the belongings to the hospital and handed them off to someone who said he was Damon’s dad.
Mauk didn’t understand. Damon’s father was largely absent from his life. How could he have been there to pick up the wallet and phone?
A few weeks after the fatal crash, Mauk asked for records, including: the sheriff’s report and inventory of items taken from the car, body camera footage from deputies who gave away the belongings, the report, photos and videos created by the patrol and more.
Mauk, of the Mansfield area, received some but not all of the requested records. Mauk hired attorney Brian Bardwell to pursue records she believes exist but weren’t provided or were improperly redacted.
The sheriff’s office claimed that some of the requested records were exempt from disclosure because they are confidential law enforcement records or personal notes. The court privately reviewed the records withheld from Mauk and determined that they should be released.
The decision in favor of releasing records runs contrary to recent rulings from the high court.
In 2024, the court held that the cost of sending troopers to protect Gov. Mike DeWine at a Super Bowl game weren’t subject to disclosure and that the Ohio Department of Health should redact from a database the names and addresses of Ohioans who had died, even though that death certificate information can be released on an individual case basis.
In 2025 the court ruled that police officers’ names may be kept confidential if they’re attacked on the job, giving them privacy rights afforded to crime victims.
State government reporter Laura Bischoff can be reached at lbischoff@usatodayco.com and @lbischoff on X.
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