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Ohio police dispute new allegations immigrants are eating pets in Dayton
Police in Dayton, Ohio, have said there is no evidence that immigrants are eating pets, calling new allegations that emerged online on Saturday “irresponsible.”
The police statement was issued hours after a new video and article alleged African immigrants in Dayton were seen preparing to grill dead cats. The claim was shared by Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican vice presidential nominee, Donald Trump Jr., and others on X.
Dayton Police Chief Kamran Afzal said in a statement, “We stand by our immigrant community and there is no evidence to even remotely suggest that any group, including our immigrant community, is engaged in eating pets. Seeing politicians or other individuals use outlandish information to appeal to their constituents is disheartening.”
The new claim followed baseless allegations that Haitian immigrants were abducting and eating pets in Springfield, a city less than 30 miles from Dayton. Former President Donald Trump repeated the claim in Tuesday night’s debate, despite city officials saying there was no evidence of this happening.
On Saturday, Vance doubled down on the claims that immigrants were eating pets, sharing the new allegation on X.
“Kamala Harris and her media apparatchiks should be ashamed of themselves,” Vance wrote. “Another ‘debunked’ story that turned out to have merit.”
New claim
Christopher Rufo, a conservative writer and activist published the new claim on Substack and the allegations are based on a video originally posted to social media in August 2023.
CBS News confirmed the original video was first posted to social media in August 2023 by a man who lives in Dayton, Ohio. CBS News reached out to the man for comment but did not hear back on Saturday afternoon.
The video shows what appears to be animal carcasses on a grill. The man filming the footage alleges, without evidence, that they are cats.
“What is this they got on the grill?” the man says in the video. When two cats appear near the grill, the man jokes that the cats “better get missing — looks like his homey’s on the grill!”
Rufo said he spoke to the man who filmed the video, and the man believes the carcasses were cats. Rufo said he worked on the story with IM-1776, an online magazine, and one of their reporters visited the building where the incident was alleged to have happened. The reporter spoke to neighbors, who said that African immigrants lived in the building. Neighbors told the reporter they believed the people who owned the grill were also African immigrants, although the residents’ origin or identity wasn’t verified by CBS News.
The new allegation also prompted backlash and skepticism, with many users saying the carcasses look more like chickens. CBS News has reached out to veterinary experts for their opinion on what type of carcass is on the grill.
Dayton Mayor Jeffrey J. Mims, Jr. also issued a statement, calling the claim “totally false and dangerously irresponsible of politicians aiming to sow division and fear.” Mims said there had been “absolutely zero reports of this type of activity.”
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Electric vehicles raise concerns about whether safety infrastructure can handle their weight in a crash
As the number of electric vehicles on U.S. roads continues to rise, concern has emerged about the ability of existing safety infrastructure to handle their increased weight. Guardrails and other roadside safety barriers, typically tested against vehicles weighing around 5,000 pounds, are now being challenged by EVs that often exceed that weight.
In January, a 2021 Tesla crashed into a guardrail on the 405 Freeway in Irvine, California. The vehicle appears to have smashed through the barrier and careened off the roadway, ultimately killing the driver.
Researchers at the University of Nebraska are testing how U.S. infrastructure matches up to EVs. They crashed a 7,000-pound electric pickup — weighing 2,000 pounds more than a gas-powered pickup — at 62 mph into concrete barriers commonly used as freeway medians. The barriers contained the collision, but chunks of concrete were sent flying, and several of the 5,000-pound barriers were pushed back 10 feet — 50% more than normal.
“Unfortunately, these guardrail systems, which have performed very well with gasoline vehicles historically, do not appear to be containing electric vehicles when impacting the similar types of conditions,” said Cody Stolle, a University of Nebraska associate professor who has been studying the issue.
Nebraska Republican Sen. Deb Fischer said there has to be a greater awareness regarding the current standards for guardrails and barriers to encourage further research.
“It was eye-opening. There was a lot of damage. And again, if there would’ve been vehicles on the other side of that barrier, we would’ve seen a severe accident,” said Fischer.
A guardrail is supposed to work by containing a vehicle and redirecting it back toward the road. But in a recent test by the Texas Transportation Institute, a standard guardrail failed when an electric sedan hit it, raising further concerns about the ability of existing infrastructure to handle the heavier weight of EVs.
More than 19,000 people died in crashes where their vehicle left the roadway last year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This makes up nearly half of all traffic deaths. Guardrails and similar roadway barriers are designed to reduce the number and severity of these crashes.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy are concerned about the additional weight from EVs causing more severe crashes.
“Our guardrails and crash attenuators, they are rated up to 5,000 pounds. Many of these [electric] vehicles go up to 10,000 pounds, so that has an impact on safety,” Homendy said during a Senate hearing in March.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that half of all new car sales will be EVs by 2032, leaving limited time to address these concerns and upgrade roadside safety barriers.
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