The Eating Pets meme refers to a false claim made by former President Donald Trump following the September 10th presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris concerning Haitian immigrants eating pet cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio.
A variation on the meme has Trump supporters and critics creating generative AI images of warrior cats, making the trend all the more bizarre.
'They're eating the dogs'
On September 10, 2024, during the first and perhaps only presidential debate between Trump and Harris and after getting riled up by a jab about his rally crowd sizes, the former President claimed that immigrants are eating people’s pets.
“In Springfield, they're eating the dogs,” he said. “The people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating, they're eating the pets of the people that live there.”
When a moderator fact-checked this claim, saying that local authorities had received zero credible reports about such a thing, Trump brushed this off by saying he’d heard it on TV.
Where did the eating pets rumor come from?
The unsubstantiated rumor appears to have originated from a post on Facebook, one of the worst sources of information known to humanity. Someone in a group for residents of Springfield, Ohio, wrote that her neighbor’s daughter’s friend’s cat had gone missing only to supposedly turn up hanging from a branch in the yard of a Haitian neighbor “like you’d do a deer for butchering.”
The same Facebook user claimed they had “been told” the same thing was happening to dogs as well as to ducks and geese from local parks. The post included a photo of a Black man carrying a live goose by its feet.
None of these claims have been supported by evidence, and Springfield police denied receiving any reports about pet consumption. Baseless rumors about immigrants, especially immigrants of color, eating pets like cats and dogs have surfaced to attack these populations many times in the past.
Trump pets memes spread
Memes around the idea of eating pets began to appear on social media soon after the debate was over. People jokingly supported the rumor with adorable animal photos while others approximated the quote over screenshots of popular characters known for making wild claims, usually while screaming.
Some even made the meme musical by syncing the quote with well-known songs or playing instruments to the tune of his voice.
ALF eating a cat sandwich
ALF cat memes have been around since the early 2000s, but saw a resurgence following Trump's cat-eating comments. The most common reference is a season 4, episode 9, scene in which ALF is seen holding two pieces of bread around the Tanner family cat to make it into a “cat sandwich.”
What's up with all those Trump warrior cat AI images?
Meanwhile, Trump supporters have started posting Trump pet memes, drumming up generative AI images and videos of the former President cuddling, protecting, or otherwise palling around with cute animals. The animals mostly consist of ducks and "warrior cats"—many of them holding firearms—despite the whole JD Vance "childless cat lady" statement from 2021.
This trend started days before the debate and spread so fast that Congressman Eric Swalwell used one of the images as a visual aid during a congressional hearing. Swalwell attempted to point out how far the GOP had fallen that they were using resources to tweet out weird pictures to promote a racist rumor, which seemed to hit a nerve.
Meme examples
Related memes:
- 2024 Trump vs. Biden presidential debate memes
- ‘I have concepts of a plan’: A meme for the unprepared
- Trump’s ‘Transgender Operations on Illegal Aliens’ phrase becomes a meme
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