Wikipedia entries cover just about everything. The Wikipedia entry entitled “Mitt Romney Dog Incident” recaps the public reaction to a 1983 event in which Romney put his dog, Seamus, inside of a dog carrier, strapped it to the top of his station wagon and took a 12-hour road trip to Canada. Apparently the dog got sick up there, but Romney left the dog up there for the duration of the trip.
The incident came to light in 2007 when Romney declared his candidacy for the Republican presidential ticket, and Romney was criticized for having been cruel to his dog, a charge he denied.
The present Wikipedia entry is pretty thorough, but it does not address the legality of the event. Nor does it properly give credit to the role that social media played in helping the story get picked up during the primary campaigns, chiefly by the site Dogs Against Romney. (Romney lost the primary nomination in 2008 and subsequently lost the presidential election in 2012.)
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| A website started as a satire in 2007, but caught on in mainstream media. |
Here is what Wikipedia Wrote:
Response from the Romney family
When interviewed by Chris Wallace of Fox News, Romney stated that Seamus enjoyed being in the dog carrier, an “air-tight kennel”, and that he was not aware of any violations of Massachusetts law.[8] Ann Romney, Mitt Romney’s wife, has stated that the news media exaggerated the severity of the incident, and compared traveling in the roof-top dog carrier to riding a motorcycle or riding in the bed of a pickup truck.[5] During an April 2012 interview with ABC News, Diane Sawyer asked Mitt Romney about the Seamus story and if he would ever do it again. Romney replied, “Certainly not with the attention it’s received”, after which Sawyer stated, “You said it was the most wounding thing in the campaign so far”, though it is ambiguous as to whether Romney agreed with this statement…
Other Responses
In 2007, it was reported that Ingrid Newkirk, president of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), criticized Romney about this incident.[12] Responding to PETA, Romney said, “my dog likes fresh air”.[13]Newkirk has elaborated (speaking for herself rather than for PETA) that the Seamus incident irritates her because “there are far more serious issues to talk about” regarding mistreatment of animals.[14]
To flush out two points that were not made in the entry, I have made additions to the above-sections of the page, and those additions are underlined in the new section below:
Response from the Romney family
When interviewed by Chris Wallace of Fox News, Romney stated that Seamus enjoyed being in the dog carrier, an “air-tight kennel”, and that he was not aware of any violations of Massachusetts law,[8] even though the state’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.”[9] Ann Romney, Mitt Romney’s wife, has stated that the news media exaggerated the severity of the incident, and compared traveling in the roof-top dog carrier to riding a motorcycle or riding in the bed of a pickup truck.[5] During an April 2012 interview with ABC News, Diane Sawyer asked Mitt Romney about the Seamus story and if he would ever do it again. Romney replied, “Certainly not with the attention it’s received”, after which Sawyer stated, “You said it was the most wounding thing in the campaign so far”, though it is ambiguous as to whether Romney agreed with this statement …
Other responses
In 2007, it was reported that Ingrid Newkirk, president of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), criticized Romney about this incident.[13] Responding to PETA, Romney said, “my dog likes fresh air”.[14]Newkirk has elaborated (speaking for herself rather than for PETA) that the Seamus incident irritates her because “there are far more serious issues to talk about” regarding mistreatment of animals.[15]
The website Dogs Against Romney (www.dogsagainstromney.com), founded by Scott Crider in June 2007, launched an anti-Romney, pro-animal-welfare campaign, moving to Facebook in 2011 and building an audience of 96,000 followers.[16]
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| By 2011, the Romney-Seamus story was everywhere. |
My rationale for adding these two sections was twofold. First, it seemed important to mention that what Romney did was something that should have included charges. Shouldn’t politicians to be held accountable for their “I didn’t know it was against the law” excuses, as if somehow not knowing it was wrong makes it okay? Ultimately, Romney, then a governor of the state and a presidential candidate, was let off the hook, but likely because of the statute of limitations.
Secondly, the use of Facebook in 2011 seems significant in getting the story great national media attention during the 2012 presidential cycle, but the Wikipedia entry places emphasis only on broadcast and print media while ignoring the increasing power of social media. While Facebook was not critical to the spread of the story in 2007, by 2011 it was a major source of grassroots activism and social media sharing. It should have its place in the Wikipedia entry.