Columbus man regrets taking goose photo he says is being weaponized against immigrants
The Columbus man behind a photo of a person carrying a dead goose that was spread among right-wing social media accounts this week said he now regrets taking the photo.
The man, who wished to remain anonymous, took the picture in Columbus on July 28 and decided to share it because it was not "something you see every day," he said.
He never expected it to be used as proof by right-wing figures falsely claiming that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating pets and wildlife.
"I wish I never took it, for sure. And I hate that the picture that I took is being weaponized to use against immigrants, or really, any other group. They always have to have somebody to use as a weapon. Some group to be the bad guy," he said.
What's in the photo?
The man's photo depicts a person carrying a seemingly dead goose down Cleveland Avenue in Columbus. A Google Street View of the photo's background shows the photo was taken in Columbus, and not Springfield as some right-wing accounts have claimed.
He decided to post the photo to the Columbus subreddit, an online forum dedicated to the city on the Reddit platform.
His post garnered almost 700 upvotes and almost 400 comments from users joking about the goose and posting about the species' protected status.
That was seemingly all the attention his photo would get, until this week. Several prominent right-wing figures like Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr. and J.D. Vance began claiming, without evidence, that Haitian immigrants in the town of Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets and local wildlife.
Somewhere along the way, the photo was picked up by several right-wing X profiles as alleged proof of the claims.
"Then all of (these claims) supposedly they're going and killing all of the wildlife and whatever. That's ridiculous. But people see things that are spread and have no idea what the truth is, but they spread it like it's truth. And I feel like the only person that knows what really happened to the goose is the guy that had the goose," the poster said in a phone interview with the Dispatch.
What's going on in Springfield, Ohio?
Springfield, a city about 40 miles west of Columbus, has been thrust into the national political spotlight in recent weeks as conservative politicians and media figures point to it as an example of Vice President Kamala Harris' immigration policies.
For example, Sen. J.D. Vance, who is running for vice president with Donald Trump, claimed in a post on X that the immigrants are draining social services in Springfield, "causing chaos" and eating pets under Kamala Harris' watch.
Between 15,000 and 20,000 Haitian immigrants have settled in the Springfield area after fleeing rampant gang violence and political turmoil in Haiti. The Biden administration has allowed legal entry through a humanitarian parole program to hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing that violence and similar crises in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, The Cincinnati Enquirer has reported.
These Haitians are in the U.S. legally under a temporary protected status, a Department of Homeland Security designation for legal refugees who cannot return to their home countries due to unsafe or unstable conditions. Many of them moved to Springfield after being recruited by local companies for jobs that locals were not filling, The Enquirer reported.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Goose photograph shows man in Columbus, not Springfield Haitian immigrant
