Do reports of missing cats in Bangor, Maine, prove that Haitian immigrants were involved with their disappearances? No, that's not true: A Bangor police officer told Lead Stories there's nothing linking the missing cats to Haitians or any other group of people. The officer said it's much more likely that wild predators have been feeding on the felines or that a human has "catnapped" some of them.
The implied claim appeared in a post on X (archived here), formerly known as Twitter, on September 23, 2024. The post's caption read:
16 pet cats have suddenly disappeared in Bangor, Maine. No remains were found.
Experts don't believe an animal did this.
Bangor just had an influx of Haitians.
This is how the post looked on X at the time of the writing of this fact check:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed Sep 25 15:21:48 2024 UTC)
The post implied a connection between cat disappearances in Bangor and the city's Haitian immigrant community, but provided no evidence to substantiate any such connection. The news video that accompanied the post, originally broadcast on August 29, 2024, discussed the missing pets, but said nothing about Haitians.
At the time of writing, Bangor residents had called in more than 20 reports of unaccounted-for cats starting in the summer of 2024, Sgt. Jason McAmbley of the Bangor Police Department told Lead Stories in a telephone interview on September 25, 2024. He said there is nothing tying the disappearances to Haitian immigrants:
There is zero evidence as to who or what is responsible for this. We are fairly certain it is not Haitian immigrants.
Bangor, a city of around 32,000 in central Maine, is surrounded by swathes of thick forest, putting household pets at risk to wild predators. McAmbley said he had seen coyotes roaming the city streets:
When they're hungry, they come out at night. A fat cat doesn't put up much resistance.
He also mentioned a bobcat that was struck and killed by a vehicle on September 19, 2024, near the area where the felines have been going astray (archived here). Another possibility is that humans have been abducting the some of the pets, at least one of which was a fairly valuable Maine coon cat, McAmbley said.
A Facebook group dedicated to Bangor's Fairmont neighborhood, where McAmbley said many of the cat disappearances have occurred, has several posts about missing pets. One member said she had spotted coyotes in her yard on home security-camera footage at about the time the household cat went missing. At the time of writing, none of the posts cast blame on Haitian immigrants.
Unproven allegations of people killing household pets for food have been swirling on social media since Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump -- speaking during the September 10, 2024, presidential debate -- repeated a claim that Haitian immigrants were eating household pets in Springfield, Ohio.
Bangor police have fielded several calls from people concerned that Haitian immigrants have been taking their pets, lack of evidence notwithstanding, McAmbley said.
Lead Stories contacted Bangor animal control officer Trisha Bruen and will update this fact check if she replies.
Lead Stories has debunked here other claims that Haitian immigrants are stealing and eating pets.
