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Romney's Cruel Canine Vacation
June 27, 2007
By Ana Marie Cox
 The
reporter intended the anecdote that opened part four of the Boston
Globe's profile of Mitt Romney to illustrate, as the story said,
"emotion-free crisis management": Father deals with minor — but
gross — incident during a 1983 family vacation, and saves the day.
But the details of the event are more than unseemly — they may, in
fact, be illegal.
The incident: dog excrement found
on the roof and windows of the Romney station wagon. How it got
there: Romney strapped a dog carrier — with the family dog Seamus,
an Irish Setter, in it — to the roof of the family station wagon for
a twelve hour drive from Boston to Ontario, which the family
apparently completed, despite Seamus's rather visceral protest.
Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's
Vacation; Mitt Romney
Massachusetts's animal cruelty laws
specifically prohibit anyone from carrying an animal "in or upon a
vehicle, or otherwise, in an unnecessarily cruel or inhuman manner
or in a way and manner which might endanger the animal carried
thereon." An officer for the Massachusetts Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals responded to a description of the
situation saying "it's definitely something I'd want to check out."
The officer, Nadia Branca, declined to give a definitive opinion on
whether Romney broke the law but did note that it's against state
law to have a dog in an open bed of a pick-up truck, and "if the dog
was being carried in a way that endangers it, that would be
illegal." And while it appears that the statute of limitations has
probably passed, Stacey Wolf, attorney and legislative director for
the ASPCA, said "even if it turns out to not be against the law at
the time, in the district, we'd hope that people would use common
sense...Any manner of transporting a dog that places the animal in
serious danger is something that we'd think is inappropriate...I
can't speak to the accuracy of the case, but it raises concerns
about the judgment used in this particular situation."
Ingrid Newkirk, president of People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was less circumspect. PETA
does not have a position on Romney's candidacy per se, but Newkirk
called the incident "a lesson in cruelty that was ... wrong for [his
children] to witness...Thinking of the wind, the weather, the speed,
the vulnerability, the isolation on the roof, it is commonsense that
any dog who's under extreme stress might show that stress by losing
control of his bowels: that alone should have been sufficient
indication that the dog was, basically, being tortured." Romney, of
course, has expressed support for the use of "enhanced
interrogation" techniques when it comes to terrorists; his campaign
refused to comment about the treatment of his dog.
As organizer of the Salt Lake City
Olympic Games, Romney came under fire from some animal welfare
groups for including a rodeo exhibition as part of the Games'
festivities. At the time, he told protesters, "We are working hard
to make this as safe a rodeo for cowboys and animals as is humanly
possible."
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