County: No evidence of August claim that Haitians took geese at Springfield park

A “call detail report” from the Clark County Communications Center documents that call. It does not indicate that law enforcement officials ever found the geese, or found the four Haitians that the caller mentioned, to confirm the truth of the report. It says law enforcement eventually suggested the caller contact the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

Clark County Commissioner Sasha Rittenhouse said Wednesday morning that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources was unable to find any merit to the claim.

“No videos have surfaced, no pictures have surfaced, no dead geese have surfaced; there’s nothing to substantiate that it’s happening,” Rittenhouse said at county commission’s regular meeting.

Discussion of alleged mistreatment of animals in Springfield took off over the weekend. A post in a local Facebook group claimed an unnamed person’s neighbor’s daughter’s friend found their cat hanging from a branch at a Haitian neighbor’s home being carved up to be eaten. The post said that Haitians were doing the same at Snyder Park with ducks and geese, and the post went viral nationally.

Prominent Republicans including former President Donald Trump, vice presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. JD Vance, businessman Elon Musk and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz repeated the claims, with several using the city as an example for the need for immigration reform.

Springfield police, Mayor Rob Rue and Clark County Commission President Melanie Flax Wilt have all rejected the claims, saying no evidence has been found to support them.

Many people claiming on social media that Haitians are killing pets or birds in Springfield have posted a particular picture of a Black man in a blue shirt and khaki pants carrying a goose down a city street. The circumstances of that situation are not clear. But that picture has now been verified as being taken at the intersection of Cleveland Avenue and Northwold Road in Columbus, not Springfield.

Others arguing the stories are true have posted video of police questioning a woman for eating a pet cat. That incident, in which a woman was charged with cruelty to companion animals for allegedly killing and eating a cat, occurred in Canton, Ohio, not Springfield.

Clark County Sheriff’s Office Major Scott Cultice said at Wednesday’s meeting that he and another employee at the Clark County Combined Dispatch Center went through 11 months of call records Tuesday to check for reports on these matters, and the Aug. 26 call was the only one he was able to verify that had been made. He said that call ended up referred to ODNR.

Rittenhouse said she rode with an ODNR staffer last Thursday to look into some claims about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating geese and ducks, and learned that nothing came out of the call, with there being no evidence.

Flax Wilt said Wednesday morning that false claims lead to a waste of resources, and the Aug. 26 call led an officer to be dispatched on a “literal wild goose chase.”