Adding my mini-essay for archives:
Some apologists claim that it may be possible, that Haitians are also Voodoo practitioners, etc. Assuming that one event did happen, when an animal is sacrificed for a fertility rite it's poultry, we also eat that. Assuming that a desperately hungry person would have eaten a cat, it suggests mismanagement resulting in famine, something that they cannot be blamed for. In times of famine, white people have even eaten people, eating a cat seems like nothing in comparison.
It is obvious that there is a motive behind those promoting the claims. It is like jumping from the case of a particular multiethnic relationship to "Love Jihad" disinformation. Or like the promotion of mass ritual murder moral panic conspiracy theories, when rare cases involving psychopaths and insane people exist.
Looking at the sources promoting it also tells a lot. Trump, Musk, Vance, Kirk... All notorious for fabricating and promoting outlandish falsehoods constantly. And it's not the first time that Trump is influenced by online trolling, even outlandish nonsense from trolling boards and Russian disinformation. Who else has promoted those claims for panic? Neo-nazis, online.
Why would Trump, at a major presidential debate national show, suddenly begin to madly ramble about Haitians eating pets? It was part of his fear mongering racist propaganda, promoting panic, claiming that there's an invasion attacking the country, destroying it and eating your pets, and that Harris is supposedly part of the plot. There is a malicious motive and a scapegoat.
So a short description becomes: racist moral panic disinformation conspiracy theory.
Edit/Adding:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/15/jd-vance-lies-haitian-immigrants