Police in Springfield, Ohio, said Monday they had received no credible reports of immigrants harming pets, contradicting a claim by Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance.

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

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

The Springfield Police Division said in a statement that it was aware of the “rumors” and had no information to support them.

“In response to recent rumors of criminal activity from the immigrant population in our city, we want to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific allegations of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” police said. in a statement sent to NBC News.

They added that they had no information to support similar claims about immigrants squatting or disrupting traffic.

“Furthermore, there have been no verified cases of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents’ homes. Additionally, there have been no reports of members of the immigrant community deliberately disrupting traffic,” police said.

After NBC News asked the Vance campaign about the lack of evidence for his claim, a spokesman said the senator had received “a large volume of calls and emails over the past few weeks from concerned citizens of Springfield” and that “his tweet is based on what he hears from them.”

However, the spokesman did not say whether any of those calls or emails had included evidence of violence against pets, and did not provide evidence for Vance’s statements.

There is a long history of conservative politicians and pundits denigrate Haitian immigrants in particular, including baseless accusations of cannibalism, according to historians who have studied the former French colony.

Viles Dorsainvil, president of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center, a Springfield nonprofit, denounced the latest rumors as uninformed and racist.

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

Dorsainvil said his organization helps immigrants with job applications, legal support and more. He added that the Haitians have moved to Ohio because of gang conflict and political unrest in his home country.

“They are looking for a place to raise their family and look for a job. But it happens that the city has not been prepared for the influx of Haitians coming here,” he said.

The false claims of threats to pets began going viral on social media over the weekend, fueled in part by a fourth-hand account that appeared to come from a Facebook group focused on local crime in Springfield.

The group was set to private on Monday, but according to screenshots posted on X, someone in the Facebook group wrote that “my neighbor informed me that her daughter’s friend had lost her cat.” The poster went on to describe Haitians allegedly taking the cat for food.

Conservative pundit Charlie Kirk posted a screenshot of the Facebook post on Sunday, X, and within 24 hours it had received more than 3 million views.

The rumor was picked up by other right-wing commentators, including Jack Posobiec, who wrote about it on X more than 30 times Sunday and Monday. Others echoed the allegations, including X owner Elon Musk, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

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

At noon on Monday, Haiti was the most popular topic in the US on X.

In his post on X, Vance attributed his pet information to unspecified “reports” and suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris was to blame for Haitian immigrants “generally wreaking havoc all over Springfield, Ohio.” In 2021, President Joe Biden tasked Harris with tackling the “root causes” of migration.

Vance also claimed without evidence that the Haitian population in question consists of illegal immigrants.

A Springfield city website says it’s not true. “Haitian immigrants are here legally, under the Immigration Parole Program,” the website says, citing 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, the parent company of Facebook, also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

As many as 20,000 Haitian immigrants have arrived in the Springfield area in recent years, and while they have helped revitalize the city, there have been protests, The New York Times reported this month. In May, a jury found a Haitian immigrant guilty for causing a school bus crash that killed an 11-year-old boy.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com