Earlier this year, online stories began to circulate that Haitian immigrants in the small city of Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets. Before long, chat forums were rife with outrage over the "petnappings," and schools and government offices were forced to shut down after receiving bomb threats. While local law enforcement has dismissed the claims as fantasy, the story continues to circulate on social media. So where did these tales come from and why have they spread?

Stories of pet-eating migrants are urban legends that can be thought of as living folklore that involves improbable happenings that are repeated as true and embellished with retelling. Such stories serve a function in society because they have........

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