Romney was brutally cruel to that dog, if your dad had told you to put his cage up on the roof of the car in Massachusetts, then he would have been breaking the law.
It was a 12 hour trip on the freeway, and part way along, the treatment made the dog sick and diarrhea was flowing over the car, that forced Romney to stop and hose down the car, the cage, the dog, and then get back on the freeway with the dog wet this time.
The media has two different reports of what happened to the dog, but they both reveal that Mitt got. rid of the dog after this abusive trip.
One version is that the dog ran off after they arrived, this is the supposed account by two of the sons.
The other is the official Romney response that they sent him to live with Ann’s sister in California, either way, this incident was the end of Seamus for Mitt.
“As the oldest son, Tagg Romney commandeered the way-back of the wagon, keeping his eyes fixed out the rear window, where he glimpsed the first sign of trouble. ‘’Dad!’’ he yelled. ‘’Gross!’’ A brown liquid was dripping down the back window, payback from an Irish setter who’d been riding on the roof in the wind for hours.
Mr. Romney responded to his dog’s defecation by “coolly” stopping at a gas station where he “borrowed a hose, washed down Seamus and the car, then hopped back onto the highway” with Seamus strapped back on the roof.”
Ansel, I am a sheepdog as well, and as such, I will pick and choose my battles. It makes no sense to get into the middle of the dog issue between Obama and Romney. They are both losers. I know people who have eaten dog but they don’t play the issue up by telling others or by putting it in a book. Also, those of us who were adults forty years ago know what Romney did to his dog WAS cruel and unusual.
We have the greatest country known to have ever existed about to be flushed down the toilet by both of these individuals. That’s where I choose my battles, not with their petty campaign babble.
But it's quite transparent.
He rages against Romney because Mitt's a Republican (more or less), and you rage against him because he's a Mormon.
Gail Collins, a New York Times columnist has mentioned Shamus over 50 times in print. Is she another dog lover?
I'm trying to figure out just what the practice was at the time and how people would have reacted at the time and whether this would have been regarded as so cruel or criminal at the time that people wouldn't do it.
Maybe 1983 was a little late, and maybe you guys are right, but my own childhood memory of the 1970s was that people weren't as panicky about things like dog carriers on roofs or helmets on cyclists.
PS, the Romney's didn't give Shamus away to a relative until some years after this incident. If the dog had problems, we don't know that they were related to the vacation trip, and we don't know how old Shamus was when the problems started.