Pets

Donald Trump pushing a wild conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants eating Americans' cats and dogs in an Ohio town has prompted folks to flood the local police force with inquiries ... to the point where the cops are having trouble investigating actual crimes.

Police in Springfield, OH tell TMZ ... the department is getting double the amount of daily calls -- which was already in the hundreds! -- from concerned citizens across the country, all asking the same thing ... are immigrants really eating people's pets?!?

Cops say the increased call volume started after Trump pushed the debunked conspiracy about Haitians in Tuesday night's debate against Kamala Harris ... when he said immigrants were eating cats and dogs in the city, which he called out specifically.

J.D. Vance's infamous "childless cat ladies" clip seems to be affecting people's feelings toward owning cats ... based on what animal shelters across the country are seeing.

TMZ did some digging, and animal rescue operations in blue states are reporting a spike in cat adoptions, while shelters in red states are seeing cat adoptions slow to a crawl ... and the places we talk to have a sneaking suspicion Donald Trump's running mate is a driving force here.

AMA Animal Rescue in New York, a solidly blue state, says there's been a surge in cat adoptions in August and September compared to previous months ... which comes in the wake of Vance's "childless cat ladies" clip resurfacing at the end of July and getting a lot of attention.

Donald Trump amplified one standout, insane conspiracy theory during Tuesday night's presidential debate -- suggesting Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Ohio. And the fact is, there IS one horrifying cat case, but the facts don't match Trump's.

Here's the deal ... over the weekend, J.D. Vance stoked a looney notion that Haitian immigrants are killing and eating random pets in Springfield, Ohio ... which was swiftly debunked. Nevertheless, rabid supporters ran with the narrative.

Then, during the debate ... DJT raised the fantastical story again, which was subsequently supported by Trump supporter Kevin Sorbo, who posted a police body cam video of an Ohio woman being arrested for alleged animal abuse last month.

Donald Trump pushed a wild conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants eating American pets during Tuesday's debate – prompting Kamala Harris to bust out in laughter onstage.

Trump delivered his bizarre response after ABC News moderator David Muir asked the Republican presidential nominee about why he killed a bill in Congress that would have secured the southern border.

DT began by responding to a previous statement by Kamala about people leaving Trump's rallies early because they're tired of his shtick.

Shohei Ohtani and his wife aren't the only athletes in the family ... 'cause the Dodgers superstar's adorable dog, Decoy, stole the show with a perfect "first pitch" at Wednesday's game!!

The Japanese slugger's four-legged friend was the star of the night when L.A. hosted the Baltimore Orioles -- not only did he participate in the pre-game festivities ... but the team handed out 40,000 bobbleheads featuring Ohtani holding Decoy.

Prior to the first inning, Ohtani and Decoy -- wearing a No. 17 jersey -- went out to the field to do the ceremonial toss ... with Shohei setting him up on the mound and placing a baseball next to him before taking his position behind home plate.

The Davenport Police Department released body cam video of the Iowa police officer fatally shooting a dog in front of 2 kids, saying the cop's actions were lawful, but the pooch's owner has a very different take.

The PD released the footage Wednesday along with the shooting officer's report, which states the salivating dog aggressively confronted him, baring its teeth and repeatedly snapping at him. The video clearly shows the canine lunging toward the frightened officer, identified by Our Quad City News as Ethan Bock.

However, the dog's owner, Don Hesseltine, tells TMZ ... Bock should be criminally charged and tossed in jail for killing his beloved Myst.

The Iowa police officer who fatally shot a dog in front of the pup's owners and young kids killed another dog last month ... when he ran over the pooch with his police vehicle.

Body cam footage from the aftermath of the July 13 incident shows the officer, identified by Our Quad City News as Ethan Bock, walking over to a dog lying dead in an alleyway and admitting he ran over it with his car.

Bock utters "God dammit" and then radios in the incident, saying ... "Hey, I'm 10-2. Some frickin' dog just ran out here and I smoked it."

An Iowa police officer fatally shot a dog in front of the pet's owners and young children – but the question is whether the cop was justified to use deadly force.

The officer, identified by Our Quad City News as Ethan Bock, responded to a house in Davenport, IA, on the night of August 21 after receiving a report of 4 aggressive dogs trying to jump a fence to reach another pooch.

As Bock was investigating the call in an alley, he came upon one of the dogs dashing toward him from a yard outside the home.

This is sick ... disturbing video out of Florida appears to show a man physically abusing a dog and wielding a sharp object ... and now police are involved.

In the footage, posted to social media by Only in Dade, you see a man and a large dog on the balcony of a Miami high-rise ... and the guy appears to grab the pooch by the neck and head, shoving the poor pup's face toward the floor.

The dog here is clearly scared, and tries to get away from the man ... but he grabs the dog again, this time with what looks to be a knife in hand, and appears to strike the dog in the ribs multiple times.

Lily Allen’s former pup has been rehomed and is living her best life with the new family ... TMZ has learned.

Animal Haven NYC tells TMZ ... Lily’s black Lab, Mary -- who she once shared with David Harbour -- has found a tail-wagging happy ending after the singer returned her to the rescue group months after her May 2021 adoption.

Tiffany Lacey, Executive Director of Animal Haven, tells us it's always their policy to take back animals if an adoption doesn't work out -- which is not uncommon with other pets too.

Cat owners have more than J.D. Vance to worry about now -- a deadly strain of avian bird flu is spreading to house cats, according to researchers.

The bird flu, which scientists call H5N1, had been ravaging American farm animals for the last 2.5 years -- killing 100 million birds and impacting nearly 200 dairy farm herds -- but now it's jumped to indoor cats.

Researchers say the numbers aren't huge yet, a New York Times report says at least 21 kitties have caught it, but the concern is how they're getting it. One of the cases was a cat that lived on a dairy farm ... so, that one makes sense.

Kanye West and Bianca Censori are overseas, Lily Allen is returning a dog and Simone Biles is celebrating her Olympics success with a new car ... all this on today's TMZ TV Hot Takes.

First up on "TMZ Live," Charles and Babcock explain why Ye and his wife are with his kids over in South Korea.

Lily Allen's taking some ruff criticism online ... with people blasting her character after she admitted she ditched a rescue puppy when it chewed up her family's passports.

The actress told the story on her "Miss Me?" podcast, and revealed the dog she adopted in 2021 turned out to be a hungry pup ... chewing just about everything it could fit between its teeth.

One of those tasty forbidden treats -- her passport and her kids' passports, complete with their visas stuck inside of them ... which the little dog apparently shredded.

Lady Gaga is showing off her new cuddly partner to the world ... but it ain't her fiancé!

The singer/actress got herself another French bulldog to go along with her other 2 Frenches -- and she put the small canine on full display in a recent TikTok video.

Check it out ... Gaga was going gaga over her pug-nosed pooch, holding it up to the camera as Bruno Mars' "Die with a Smile" played in the background.

Forget, J-E-T-S ... Aaron Rodgers was more into P-U-P-S at New York training camp Wednesday -- snuggling an adorable pooch after his squad's workout!!

The team brought in some doggos in order to raise awareness for the St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in New Jersey ... and almost immediately, one took a liking to NY's star signal-caller.

The little ball of fur crawled into the quarterback's arms ... and then licked his face repeatedly.

California's furry felines will be out in force all weekend at CatCon -- but one person who probably won't be making a cameo is J.D. Vance!

As you know, Donald Trump's Republican VP pick put his foot in his mouth in a recently resurfaced 2021 interview with then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson in which he referred to Kamala Harris and other U.S. leaders as "childless cat ladies," mainly on the Democratic side.

Of course, Vance's statement didn't sit well with Kamala -- the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee -- and other liberals who have blasted the Ohio senator ever since the clip started circulating again.