Police in Springfield, Ohio, said on Monday that they had not received any credible reports that immigrants had harmed their pets, contradicting a statement by Republican vice presidential candidate Senator JD Vance.

The Ohio senator, as well as other Republican lawmakers and several conservative commentators, have claimed in recent days without evidence that the arrival of thousands of immigrants from Haiti in Springfield has caused chaos.

In a post on X on Monday, Vance wrote that “pets have been kidnapped and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.”

Springfield police said in a statement that they were aware of the “rumors” but had no information to support them.

“In response to recent rumors that the immigrant population in our city is engaging in criminal activity, we want to clarify that there are no credible reports or specific allegations that pets belonging to individuals from the immigrant community have been harmed, injured or mistreated,” police said in an emailed statement to NBC News.

They added that they had no information to support similar allegations about immigrants occupying houses or obstructing traffic.

“In addition, there are no confirmed cases of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or dumping garbage in front of residents’ homes. Furthermore, there are no reports of members of the immigrant community intentionally obstructing traffic,” police said.

When contacted by NBC News, the Vance campaign said there was insufficient evidence to support his claim. A spokesperson said the senator had “received a large number of calls and emails from concerned Springfield residents over the past few weeks” and that “his tweet is based on what he has heard from them.”

However, the spokesman did not say whether these calls or emails contained any references to violence against pets, nor did he provide any evidence to support Vance’s statements.

According to historians who have studied the former French colony, conservative politicians and experts have always denigrated Haitian immigrants in particular, making baseless accusations against them, among other things, of cannibalism.

Viles Dorsainvil, president of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center, a nonprofit organization in Springfield, condemned the recent rumors as uninformed and racist.

“This is just bigotry, discrimination and racism,” he said. “There is a group of people who have fabricated some news just to denigrate Haitians.”

Dorsainvil said his organization helps immigrants apply for jobs, provides legal assistance and more. He added that the Haitians moved to Ohio because of gang conflicts and political unrest in their home country.

“They are looking for a place to raise their families and find work. But the city is not prepared for the influx of Haitians,” he said.

The false claims about threats to pets spread like wildfire on social media over the weekend, fueled in part by a fourth-hand story that appeared to have originated in a Facebook group dedicated to local crime in Springfield.

On Monday, the group was set to private, but according to screenshots posted to X, someone in the Facebook group wrote: “My neighbor told me her daughter’s friend lost her cat.” The poster went on to describe how Haitians allegedly took the cat for dinner.

Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk posted a screenshot of the Facebook post on X on Sunday and within 24 hours it had been viewed more than 3 million times.

The rumor was picked up by other right-wing commentators, including Jack Posobiec, who posted about it on X more than 30 times on Sunday and Monday. Others echoed the allegations, including X owner Elon Musk, Senator Ted Cruz (Republican of Texas) and Representative Jim Jordan (Republican of Ohio).

“Please vote for Trump so the Haitian immigrants don’t eat us,” Cruz wrote on X as a caption to a cat photo.

On Monday afternoon, Haitians were the No. 1 trending topic in the US on X.

In his post on X, Vance attributed his information about pets to unspecified “reports” and suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris was responsible for Haitian immigrants “generally causing chaos throughout Springfield, Ohio.” In 2021, President Joe Biden tasked Harris with addressing the “root causes” of migration.

Vance also claimed, without evidence, that the Haitian population in question were illegal immigrants.

A Springfield city website says that’s not true. “Haitian immigrants are here legally under the Immigration Parole Program,” the website says, referring to a federal humanitarian program for migrants.

Representatives for Kirk, Posobiec, Musk, Cruz and Jordan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

X and Meta, Facebook’s parent company, also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In recent years, as many as 20,000 Haitian immigrants have come to the Springfield area, and although they have helped revitalize the city, protests have broken out, The New York Times reported this month. In May, a jury found a Haitian immigrant guilty of causing a school bus crash that killed an 11-year-old boy.