Posted on 02/22/2012 6:50:35 AM PST by RoosterRedux
Paging Gail Collins: the shameful tale of Seamus, Mitt Romney’s Irish setter—whom the candidate stuck in a crate and strapped to the roof of his car on a 12 hour ride to Canada—may have ended with a stroke of poetic justice. According to a piece on Politicker yesterday, Romney’s sons told reporters in an off-record conversation that the dog ran away when the family got to Ontario. Such a revelation, if true, gives the lie to Romney’s now nearly five-year-old claim that Seamus liked riding on top of the station wagon. (“He scrambled up there every time we went on trips,” the governor insisted. “He got it all by himself and enjoyed it.” To which we say: That is either one small station wagon or one very athletic dog).
Others have already disputed the idea that Seamus appreciated his wind-blown tours atop the family car. The 2007 Globe story describing the 1983 event recounted how Romney’s son at one point saw “a brown liquid … dripping down the back window, payback from an Irish setter who’d been riding on the roof in the wind for hours.” That Seamus suffered from diarrhea during the trip was taken as evidence that he and his owner disagreed about the wisdom of the travel arrangement. Earlier this week, an anti-Romney protest was held outside the Westminster dog show. And, in a Dan Savage-like move, Google users recently conspired to transform Romney’s name into a verb meaning “to defecate in fear.”
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
However, he wouldn't even consider doing that today, and would probably be arrested if he did, because times and attitudes have changed. The point is, it's stupid to try to hold individuals to modern standards for something that happened decades ago.
But Romney strapped the dog on the roof for a 12 hour trip. That's a little different.
Even without the ride on top of the car, the fact that the dog ran away is quite telling in itself.
My dogs know where they’re loved and won’t leave my side.
Thx!
I agree with you in one way. Our attitudes were much different 60 years ago when my parents, including my over-protective daddy, thought it was fine for our uncle to drive 4 or 5 children to Oklahoma in the back of a pickup.
And dogs rode in the back of pickups also with nothing to hold them safely in.
But even then, I never heard of or saw anybody doing this. It still seems cruel and thoughtless to me no matter the times.
It’s what I think of when I think of Romney.
A man who loves his animals would NEVER strap his dog to the roof of his car and certainly not for a 12 hour trip.
Going down the road a spell, is way different than an open kennel strapped to the top of a car for twelve hours.
I saw an interview with Romney from just a few years ago and when asked he laughed said it was no big deal.
Romney is not only scum but clueless.
Yeah, this wasn’t that long ago. I actually remember 1983. I remember my dog. Strapping him to the roof of our car, even for a short trip... Uh, uh.
Was the dog distressed? Was it illegal under Massachusetts law as cruelty? There is some evidence that both are true. During the trip, the Boston Globe reported, Romney’s oldest son, Tagg, looked around through the rear window and yelled,“Dad — gross!” A brown liquid was dripping down the back window — diarrhea from an animal that just might have been caused by the stress of being inside a cage for 12 hours on top of a car going 60 mph.And what did Romney do, even after knowing of the dog's diarrhea? Did he realize that perhaps Seamus should be shown some mercy, cleaned up and allowed in the car, to sleep on someone’s lap? No.Here’s how the Globe described what Romney then did:
“As the rest of the boys joined in the howls of disgust, Romney coolly pulled off the highway and into a service station. There he borrowed a hose, washed down Seamus and the car, then hopped back onto the highway. It was a tiny preview of a trait he would grow famous for in business: emotion-free crisis management.”Emotion-free crisis management??!I love animals, especially dogs. I don’t like people who are cruel to animals. I am told it is illegal in Massachusetts to put an animal on a car roof while driving. Had I been the local sheriff, I would have arrested him.
In an “off the record conversation”. Reporters are dishonorable slobs.
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