STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.

Not Immigrant

Was a Haitian immigrant charged with eating a cat in Ohio in 2024? No, that's not true: Police said a woman arrested in Canton, Ohio, in August 2024 for allegedly torturing, killing and eating a cat was born in the United States and is a U.S. citizen. There are no reports of anyone in Ohio's immigrant community eating any pets.

The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) posted on X, formerly Twitter, on September 8, 2024. The video's caption said:

A Haitian immigrant in Ohio ate her neighbors cat. 🫣

This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:

(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Sep 9 22:03:33 2024 UTC)

The post provided nothing to support its statement that a Haitian immigrant in Ohio had eaten a neighborhood house cat.

Google search

Using keywords from the claim, Lead Stories searched Google News, but found no credible reporting as of September 9, 2024, to support the claim that a Haitian immigrant had eaten a cat. The results of this search can be seen here (archived here).

While there were verified and independent news reports about a woman in Canton, Ohio, allegedly killing and eating a cat, those reports did not identify her as an immigrant, Haitian or otherwise.

On August 19, 2024, WKYC, the NBC affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio, reported (archived here) that:

Canton police

In a September 10, 2024, email to Lead Stories, Lt. Dennis Garren, a media relations officer with the Canton police, confirmed with documentation the details of the arrest that appeared in earlier media reports. He added:

Alexis Ferrell is not a Haitian immigrant. Those are false reports. We have no other reports of anyone eating animals.

In a separate email a day later, Garren said arrest records show her date of birth as July 8, 1997, and her place of birth as Canton. Online court records (use "guest" access to see online form of this record) for Stark County, where Canton is located, also confirm her birthdate:

(Source: Stark County, Ohio, Criminal Justice Information System screenshot taken on Wed Sep 11 17:12:39 2024 UTC)

Using Google Maps, Lead Stories searched for the 1100 block of 13th Street SE in Canton where the arrest took place and found houses very similar to the ones shown in the arrest video. The residences are shown below (X video on top and Google Maps on the bottom):

(Source: X and Google Map screenshots taken on Mon Sep 9 2024 UTC)

The nighttime video on social media matched the bodycam footage of Ferrell's arrest, which was provided by Canton police to Lead Stories.

Springfield, Ohio

Social media also spread similar claims of immigrants purportedly stealing and eating cats in Springfield, Ohio. In a September 9, 2024, email to Lead Stories, Karen Graves, a strategic engagement manager for the City of Springfield, denied a variety of claims related to immigrants in the community. The statement said:

In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community. Additionally, there have been no verified instances of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents' homes. Furthermore, no reports have been made regarding members of the immigrant community deliberately disrupting traffic.

Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about immigrants can be found here.

Updates:

• 2024-09-11T17:16:25Z 2024-09-11T17:16:25Z
  Adds additional context from the Canton, Ohio, Police Department.
• 2024-09-11T16:31:13Z 2024-09-11T16:31:13Z
  Removed inconclusive Been Verified document regarding birth date of the person alleged to have partially eaten a housecat.
• 2024-09-10T15:38:35Z 2024-09-10T15:38:35Z
  Adds context from the Canton, Ohio, Police Department.