Dog Food Fight

The way Haitians are being scapegoated in Springfield, Ohio, where the Trumpsters are asserting they are eating the residents’ cats and dogs, reminds me of how Southeast Asian immigrants were treated in Isla Vista in the late 1970s.

Following the U.S. withdrawal from its misadventure in Viet Nam, local Catholic organizations took out master leases on a lot of I.V. apartments during summer months when many students were gone. At the time, landlords only had nine-month leases, not the 12 monthers that became standard in the ’80s. A special 1975 census conducted by the county found that fully 6 percent of I.V.’s residents were Vietnamese and Laotians, or Southeast Asian immigrants — mostly Hmong.

Also at the time, Isla Vista had a dog problem. Many students had a dog but didn’t take it with them when they left town via graduation or whatever. The result was a lot of dogs running in packs, some of which rushed kids on their way to I.V. school, stealing their lunches.

The county wisely used some federal job training money to hire two dog catcher positions, who quickly tamed the situation by insisting dog owners keep their animals under voice control.

However, it became popular among some conservative groups in town to assert that the situation had changed only because the new immigrants ate dogs.

Now you understand why Springfield reminds me of I.V. of the ’70s. There was no evidence that anyone was eating dogs, just as there is none in Springfield today.

By end of the ’80s, most of these immigrants had moved first to Lompoc then to California’s Central Valley. And the number of dogs per resident in Isla Vista diminished substantially.

Times change.

Carmen Lodise was an activist in Isla Vista for 34 years. He was elected to public office three times and is the principal author of “Isla Vista: A Citizens History” (2018).