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| "Gosh honey, the only thing that would make this station wagon any more impressive would be to strap a frightened animal to the roof." |
Courtesy of
The Star:
Back in 1983, Romney was struggling to cram the kids and their luggage into the family station wagon for the drive to the Lake Huron shores, where his family still owns a cottage at Beach O’ Pines, a mostly American enclave.
“Before beginning the drive, Mitt Romney put Seamus, the family’s hulking Irish setter, in a dog carrier and attached it to the station wagon’s roof rack,” the Globe wrote of Romney, then a 36-year-old management consultant with Boston-based Bain and Company.
Romney constructed a special windshield for the carrier, “to make the ride more comfortable for the dog.” The contraption apparently wasn’t much of a success, however, as Seamus soon began to suffer gastric issues from his windy perch atop the car.
Romney’s oldest boy, Tagg, noticed the first sign of trouble, according to the Globe piece.
“Dad!” he yelled. “Gross!” A brown liquid was dripping down the back window of the station wagon.
Romney calmly dealt with the problem amid his boys’ howls of disgust, pulling into a service station to hose down Seamus and the car.
He put the dog back in the crate and continued the drive to Ontario.
The story caused a flap when it was revealed four years ago.
“If you wouldn’t strap your child to the roof of your car, you have no business doing that to the family dog,” said Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. “I don’t know who would find that acceptable.”
To Time magazine, she described the incident as “torture.”
Let me get this straight. Romney straps the family pet to the roof of his car. Careens down a highway with the frightened animal going 55 mph or more until the dog is so frightened it craps all over itself. And after his children alert him to the fact that the dog is suffering, he then calmly pulls into a gas station, hoses off the dog, car, and carrier, and then stuffs the animal BACK INTO IT for the remainder of the drive?
Look some may label dredging up this old story as a cheap shot, but in my opinion it really speaks to a larger character issue.
If you cannot demonstrate empathy for a beloved family pet, how can ANYBODY expect you to understand or sympathize with their plights as Americans?
In 1983 Romney was a very wealthy man and could easily have afforded to put his beloved family dog in a proper receptacle for the trip, or had it placed in a kennel until they were settled. What he did instead is, simply put, horrific.
Romney always comes off as robotic and devoid of normal human emotions, and this may be the perfect illustration of why he cannot shake that perception.
