 "Who is Allexis Ferrell, the 27-year-old woman sentenced to a year in jail for eating a cat in Ohio?")
An American woman was jailed for killing and consuming a cat, which led to Donald Trump’s wild and unfounded claims about Haitian immigrants.
Allexis Ferrell, 27, entered a guilty plea to cruelty to companion animals, a fifth-degree felony, and was given a one-year prison sentence on Monday.
The Canton Repository states that she received the maximum punishment.
Here’s all we know about her.
Who is Allexis T Ferrell?
Allexis Telia Ferrell is a 27-year-old resident of Ohio’s Canton, United States.
Ferrell was charged with animal cruelty and taken into custody on August 16.
Officers claimed that Ferrell “smashed the cat’s head with her foot and then began to eat the cat” in an incident report.
In the footage, an officer was heard asking for rubber gloves and saying, “She’s covered in blood.”
Ferrell stayed silent as the officer contact the station, saying, “Will you call the Humane Society to see if they’ll come pick this cat up? It’s deceased.”
Officers reprimanded her, calling her actions “ridiculous,” according to bodycam footage of the encounter. “If you kill a cat you don’t go to hospital, you go to jail,” one is heard to say.
According to state court documents that Gray News obtained, she has been charged with animal cruelty, including harming animals, violating laws pertaining to companion animals, and disorderly behaviour.
Ferrell was arraigned in September, with a $100,000 initial bond amount. Her mugshot, which the Stark County Jail provided, showed her with an expressionless face.
The video was shared online after the incident with the fake title, “Haitian Woman East Neighbor’s Cat in Springfield.”
Later, the Springfield Police Department confirmed that the claims that went viral were false.
Canton, Ohio police spokesperson Dennis Garren said in an email, according to Reuters: “The suspect in this case is not a Haitian immigrant,” “She is a life-long Canton resident.”
The Associated Press confirmed that Ferrell was born in Ohio and graduated from Canton McKinley High School in 2015.
What happened at the court hearing?
Judge Frank Forchione told Ferrell that she had “embarrassed this nation” during Monday’s sentencing.
“I can’t express the disappointment, shock, disgust that this crime has brought to me. I don’t know what could prompt anyone to want to eat a cat,” he said.
“You’ve embarrassed this county. You’ve embarrassed this nation. More importantly, you’ve embarrassed yourself. To me, you present quite a danger to our community. This is repulsive to me, I mean, that anyone would do this to an animal. And an animal is like a child. I don’t know if you understand that or not.”
He added, “They bring a lot of love to a lot of people. They don’t have a voice. But their only voice today is me and I’m going to exercise this voice very loudly.”
According to a competency analysis from Akron’s Psycho-Diagnostic Clinic, Ferrell was able to comprehend the court proceedings despite having previously entered a not guilty plea due to insanity.
The Repository claims that on Monday, she changed her plea to guilty.
Why did her case gain the national spotlight?
President-elect Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance , brought up the incident when they were talking about immigration during the campaign.
The Republican Party made a fictitious “migrant crime wave” a major electoral issue while embracing the racist great replacement conspiracy idea. Because of that link, memes featuring Donald Trump clutching ducks and cats were produced by AI.
Issuing a statement, Trump’s campaign even said, “President Trump will deport migrants who eat pets. Kamala Harris will send them to your town next. Make your choice, America.”
“In Springfield (Ohio), they are eating the dogs,” Trump said during his debate with Democrat rival Kamala Harris while repeating the false claims about Haitian migrants. “They’re eating – they are eating the pets of the people that live there.”
Senator from Ohio and Trump’s running partner JD Vance responded to the situation, saying, “Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio." He even shared a video of him previously speaking about the crisis.
“Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.”
Following the allegations, the city saw a wave of 30 false bomb threats, which authorities attributed to division and fear stoked by false information about immigrants.
In recent years, between 12,000 and 20,000 Haitian immigrants have settled in Springfield, a city of roughly 60,000 people in south-west Ohio, primarily because of jobs in nearby manufacturing.
Before the Canton incident earlier this year, there were rumours that people were eating pets.
A Facebook message noting the claims was posted on a Springfield crime board, while a related Reddit post seemed to depict a man in Columbus, Ohio, holding a dead bird.
With inputs from agencies
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