Golden Retriever's reaction to Trump's statement “dog was eaten” goes viral

A golden retriever's hilarious reaction to former President Donald Trump's claim that a dog was eaten by immigrants in Springfield, Ohio has gone viral.

Trump faced off against Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris in the first televised debate between the two candidates on Tuesday night in Philadelphia. The debate was moderated by ABC News and the candidates tackled issues related to the economy, immigration, race, Israel and Ukraine.

During the debate, Trump said that undocumented immigrants in the United States were eating pets – a claim that apparently frightened a golden retriever who was watching the debate with his owner.

More from Newsweek Vault: The best credit cards with rewards for pet owners

In the clip, which quickly spread on social media, the owner films the dog as he watches the debate from a sofa.

“A dog was kidnapped and used as food,” Trump said, adding that people claimed their “dog was eaten by immigrants.”

Seemingly horrified, the dog leaves his place on the sofa and jumps over the side to hide behind the piece of furniture.

More from Newsweek Vault: Compare the best pet insurance for dogs

“THEY EAT THE DOGS,” said @Tarquin_Helmet in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

The post from early Tuesday morning had 3.3 million views as of 12:30 p.m. ET. It has 81,000 likes on X, 7,600 saves and 13,000 reposts.

More from Newsweek Vault: The 10 cheapest pet insurance policies

Trump talked a lot about immigrants during the debate, including rumors that some of them were eating immigrants' pets. The rumor apparently started with a post on a private Facebook page in which a woman claimed that Haitians took her friend's cat, hung it from a tree and dismembered it to eat it. Newsweek previously reported.

“What have they done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country? And look at what's happening to cities all across the United States,” Trump said during the debate.

“And many cities don’t want to talk – Aurora won’t [, Colorado] or Springfield [, Ohio]Trump said during the debate. “A lot of towns don't want to talk about it because they're so embarrassed. In Springfield, they eat the dogs. The people who came here. They eat the cats. They eat – they eat the pets of the people who live there. And that's what's happening in our country. And it's a disgrace.”

A spokesman from Springfield, Ohio, said earlier Newsweek that there were “no credible reports” that pets or other animals belonging to members of the growing immigrant community there had been harmed.

During the debate, moderator David Muir said, “The city manager of Springfield says there is no evidence of that.”

“We’ll find out,” Trump replied.