Sunday, July 01, 2007

Mitt, It Would Have Been Better To Admit You Did Something Stupid

Mitt Romney placed his family dog, an Irish setter named Seamus, into a kennel lashed to the top of his station wagon for a 12-hour family trip from Boston to Ontario in 1983. Despite being shielded by a wind screen the former Massachusetts governor erected, Seamus expressed his discomfort with a diarrhea attack. When Romney's eldest son, Tagg, and his four brothers complained about the brown runoff down the back windshield, their father quietly pulled the car over, borrowed a gas station hose and sprayed down both the dog and the kennel before returning to the road. Romney dismissed any outcry about the 24-year-old incident, saying the dog enjoyed his rooftop perch. "He scrambled up there every time we went on trips," Romney said at a campaign stop in Pittsburgh Thursday. "He got in all by himself and enjoyed it."

OK, doing this to a dog is inhumane. It just is. The dog was wiped out, and the environment for the dog in that crate was extremely unpleasant. This was 12 hours atop the car. You try riding atop a car for 12 hours, strapped on in a windy box, and see how you feel about that. It would be miserable.

It baffles me why politicians can't just say they made a mistake. Not taking responsibility for this kind of thing is a big red flag to me when voting for someone. I won't vote for a liar, cheat, crook, or someone who has no sense of right or wrong (which is why there'd be no way I'd ever vote for someone like Hillary... I've had enough of her and Bill's circus).

By the way, this is no different that you idiots who put a dog in the back of your pickup without restraint so it could fall out, or in the direct sunlight on a 100 degree day so it can burn it's feet on the floorboards and overheat in the sun, or during a downpour so it can dangerously lower the dog's body temperature.

1 comment:

Marjorie said...

It would have been an easy "out". Just say that, back then, he wasn't as aware of animal welfare issues as we all are today. Admitting that, in retrospect, it might not have been the best choice, he's learned his lesson and vows not to do that again.

And, just to address the "he ran up there on his own" comment...abused dogs will wag their tails for their abusers. Dogs don't get to choose their homes. But they do try to make the best of what they've got. It doesn't make cruelty alright, just because the dog doesn't run away at every opportunity. Think of it like "Stockholm Syndrome".