Donald Trump’s running mate, J. D. Vance, has defended his campaign’s promotion of a baseless rumour that immigrants in an Ohio town are abducting locals’ pets and eating them, saying the “meme” had forced the media to care about the effects of immigration.

Trump doubled down on the rumour during the debate, spreading it to tens of millions of viewers, despite moderators clarifying that officials in the town of Springfield said there was no evidence of such behaviour.

Speaking to CNN after the debate, Vance said the Republican campaign had been contacted by “a number of constituents on the ground, both first hand and secondhand reports, saying this stuff is happening”, and that the media should investigate.

“I think it’s important for journalists to actually get on the ground and uncover this stuff for themselves,” he said. “When you have a lot of people saying, ‘my pets are being abducted’, or ‘geese at the city pond are being abducted right in front of us and slaughtered’, this is crazy stuff.

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“Whether those exact rumours turn out to be mostly true, somewhat true, whatever the case may be – this town has been ravaged by 20,000 migrants coming in. Healthcare costs are up, housing costs are up, communicable diseases have skyrocketed.”

Vance went on to say the media did not care about these matters “until we turned it into a meme about cats”. He added: “If we have to meme about it to get the media to care, we’re going to keep on doing it.”

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins challenged Vance over whether he had a responsibility not to promote misinformation. “If someone calls your office and says they saw Big Foot, that doesn’t mean they saw Big Foot,” she said.

Vance replied: “Nobody’s calling my office and saying that they saw Big Foot. What they’re calling and saying is, ‘We’re seeing migrants kidnap our dogs and cats’.”