RESEARCH: Celebrity Animal Abuse Stories — Has There Ever Been A Politician Involved In One?
One of the things I want to accomplish in the 2012 election is to find a way to mitigate the damage that the Tolerant Left intends to do to Republicans should the Cocktail Party GOP establishment succeed in making Willard “Mittens” Romney the presidential nominee — specifically the damage that will be done down ticket from association with the “Mutt Romney” animal abuse scandal that Tolerant Leftists are already ginning up.
Republicans think this is a big joke and are mostly doing that stupid thing they do where they pretend something bad doesn’t exist (which reminds me yet again the party’s symbol should be an ostrich, not an elephant).
I need your help today researching other instances where celebrities abused animals in some way — so we can take a look at how much damage was done to them by groups like PETA, since in a general election you can count on PETA leading a charge against Romney if he’s the ultimate nominee. What did others in the past do to mitigate the damage done to their careers and brands when the elite, agenda-driven media revved up the attack machine against them because of some issue related to animals?
On the political front, I can think of idiots like Ashley Judd accusing Governor Sarah Palin of hunting wolves from a helicopter in her spare time — which actually made it seem like the Governor was secretly engaged in Buffy-esque “Werewolf Slayer” activity in Alaska. That attempt to tar Governor Palin with the animal-abuser brush largely failed, though Judd and other “celebrity activists” tried their hardest to make it stick. The narrative the Tolerant Left kept pushing against Governor Palin was that she’s stupid — as in Tina Fey’s apocryphal “I can see Russia from my house” line — so the media could not succeed in hammering the Governor with an animal abuser epithet too (because if she’s so stupid in the Left’s eyes, then how could she even know what she was doing when she was hunting werewolves from helicopters).
Lyndon Johnson used to lift his two beagles Him and Her up by their ears for photographers — and while that didn’t do much damage to him at the time, today I rarely hear anyone talk about Johnson without someone mentioning “what he did to those poor dogs”. It’s colored his legacy because he’s painted as an animal abuser retroactively — and he was a Democrat, so it shows you that when animals are involved the Tolerant Left can’t even control what the PETA -esque zealots get up to with this sort of thing.
Here’s a list of the big animal abuse stories that the media went wild with in the last few years — please chime in below with any others I’ve missed. I really want political-related ones, like where a Senator or Congressperson or Governor was involved in harming an animal in some way and was then excoriated for it — but all I’ve been able to find have been actors, singers, and reality-TV stars doing these stupid things:
1. Paris Hilton — remember her? At one time, she had something like 17 dogs, mostly chihuahuas. One of the dogs was named “Tinkerbell”, which lived in Paris’ purse during the filming of her various reality TV shows. Around 2006 or so, Paris stopped taking little dogs with her everywhere she went after it became known that she wasn’t the kindest or most dedicated dog owner. She treated the little animals like fashion accessories and was accused of leaving them to die in her closets when she got bored with them. The animal rights’ zealots started taking smacks at her in print because she was blamed for starting the trend where vapid celebutantes carried these critters in their purses — and forever PR-attuned Paris decided it was best if she phased the Tinkerbell antics out before she became a bigger target for these people.
2. Courtney Love: allowed one of her dogs to eat breast implants she had laying around the house (which she claims she forgot about) and forgot about another dog that she left at the vet’s and never picked up again. Because she has such a bad reputation already as a drugged-out train wreck, Love didn’t get any more hate than usual from the press over these instances…though the animal rightists scolded her for allowing the dog to eat her implants. What Romney did to his dog Seamus is a lot worse than this, because he’s supposed to be a respectable person who makes good decisions — not the wasted, deranged lead singer of a band named “Hole”. Love was also accused recently of having a “hoarding problem” (like you see on TV, where people accumulate so much junk in their homes it consumes their lives) that resulted in her cat dying (from being trapped in the rubble). Love claims the cat was killed by a mountain lion, not her hoarding.
3. Ellen DeGeneres: huge, hateful backlash against her over a dog adoption issue back in 2007. I know you remember this one — it’s the first time that Ellen’s golden image was tarnished. Ever since she came out of the closet, she became the media’s designated “go-to” lesbian and one of the gay community’s most high profile spokespeople. I used to watch her show every day when I had a TV but stopped around the time this thing happened with the dog because I’ve never felt the same about Ellen afterwards. I bet I’m not alone on that, either. The problem with the dog adoption is that Ellen and her now-partner Portia di Rossi adopted a dog through something called “Mutts & Moms”, which has strict rules for their adoptions. That word — adoption — is used purposefully by these people because they treat the handing over of an animal as seriously as people treat adopting a child. Ellen got in trouble because she and Portia ended up not liking the dog and got bored with it, so they gave the dog away to their cleaning lady. The “Mutts & Moms” people paid Ellen a surprise visit to see if she was abusing the dog and found out that she’d given the dog away — which violated the terms of the “adoption”. Ellen was so peeved about this that she made the huge mistake of badmouthing “Mutts & Moms” on her TV show…which encouraged her rabid fans to bombard “Mutts & Moms” with death threats. In turn, “Mutts & Moms” took to the local airwaves to talk about all the hate aimed their way because of Ellen. It was a huge PR disaster for DeGeneres — she even had a mini nervous breakdown on her show over it.
What Romney did to his dog Seamus is much worse than Ellen and Portia giving their dog to the cleaning lady. If dog lovers reduced Ellen to sobbing and tears on TV, just imagine what these people are going to do to Republicans down ticket from Romney if he’s the nominee. Can you imagine having to defend the party’s standard bearer for strapping his dog to the roof of a moving vehicle? If these people turned on Ellen – a darling of the Left – you need to think about how ugly this “Mutt Romney” stuff is going to get in a general election.
4. Jesse James – Sandra Bullock’s ex-husband, whom she divorced for a lot of reasons, but including the fact that he took his pit bulls to dog fights. Bullock found out about it and immediately started divorce proceedings — in part because she’s a genuinely nice woman who was horrified by this, but also I think because her fans would have turned on her if she’d stayed with a man who engaged in dog fights. I am sure her PR team had coronaries when they found out what Jesse James was doing. Bullock escaped unscathed from this because she got out quickly…but Jesse James is still seen as America’s #1 Scumbag for what he did to both Bullock and those dogs.
5. Michael Vick — like Jesse James, he got on the national radar for dog fighting and will forever be known as a villain for abusing animals. James and Vick did things that were worse than what Romney did to his dog Seamus, clearly, and what they did was so bad there’s just no hope of them recovering from it in the public eye.
6. Kim Kardashian — In 2010, she picked up a kitten by the scruff of its neck for a photo shoot, and PETA went after her with a vengeance for “abusing a feline”. The animal was not hurt in the slightest and it didn’t even seem to mind being picked up that way. This is sort of like the Johnson beagles thing, where those animals didn’t seem to mind what he did either. But Kardashian — who is some sort of reality TV staple — was hounded by PETA for months so they could “make an example of her” to discourage others from picking up cats by the back of their necks. You really need to understand that the Outrage Industry is comprised of groups like PETA that sit around all day waiting for someone to pick up an animal the wrong way so they can label that person “The New Hitler” for being so cruel and callous. Kardashian picking up a kitten by the neck is nowhere near as bad as Romney strapping his dog to the roof of a car. Just imagine what these people are going to do to him.
7. Ozzy Osbourne — many, many years ago, during a concert, a fan threw something on the stage that Ozzy thought was a rubber Halloween bat. So he took it and playfully bit the head off it. Instantly, he realized it was a real bat and vomited the head onto the stage, along with his lunch. He was rushed to the hospital for a rabies check — and he never intended to harm an animal, live or dead, and didn’t mean to bite the head off a real bat (that was already dead). Still, to this day, people tell the story about him biting off the head of that bat and the usual suspects at PETA go on about this, citing it as “cruelty to animals”.
For those of you who are really good at research, please help add mores instances to the above.
What’s at work here — which a lot of Republicans don’t yet see — is that there’s an entire shadowy Outrage Industry that exists for the scandal these “celebrities abusing animals” stories create. PETA uses these events to solicit donations in their fundraising campaigns — so a lot of money is probably involved, which makes these people forever on the hunt for the next big name they can smear as “The New Hitler” for being cruel to animals.
If Willard “Mittens” Romney becomes the Republican presidential nominee, he instantly also becomes the biggest named “celebrity” to ever abuse animals — according to the guidelines that have been established for this sort of thing. A quick check of the above instances reveals the following:
* it’s considered animal abuse to carry animals in purses or leave them in closets — putting Seamus on the roof was worse than this, so Romney is an animal abuser to these people
* it’s animal abuse to give a dog away to another person when you said you would not do that — clearly, strapping a dog to the roof of a moving vehicle and scaring it so badly it explodes with diarrhea all over the car is worse than this, so Romney is an animal abuse to these people
* it’s animal abuse to pick up a kitten the wrong way — so traveling with a dog strapped to the roof of a car is more animal abuse than that
The more instances of this stuff that we can find, the better sense we’ll have of what’s coming Romney’s way and how we could possibly remove this as an issue in the general election if we start planning a counter strategy now.
The only way to take it off the table would be to find an instance where Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, or Joe Biden did something worse to an animal than what Mittens did to “Mutt Romney”. If we find that, and start talking about that incident, the “Mutt Romney” stuff will go away instantly.
Otherwise, this will be one effective attack against Romney in the general election that the ostrich/elephant Cocktail Party chimeras keep pretending doesn’t exist.
© 2012, Kevin DuJan. All rights reserved.
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There was a kerfluffle between Biden and PETA about his adoption of a puppy from a breeder in 2008 instead of getting a shelter dog. Later, there was an issue with the breeder when people realized that not all of the dogs would be in the luxurious house environment.
The same kerfluffle was going to come when Obama adopted the dog from Ted Kennedy's breeder, but they stated that the girls had allergies and had to have a specific type of purebred dog that didn't shed, if I recall correctly.
The only links that I have are from the Christian Science Monitor. There was one mention of a story by NBC Philadelphia, but I couldn't get it to work through the link provided. The Biden issue was from December of 2008.
Or there's this gem that was signed into law by Obama about horse slaughter. Basically, after he promised to stop horse slaughter in his campaign, he made it legal to open horse slaughterhouses for human consumption, if I'm reading this correctly.
http://technorati.com/lifestyle/article/obama-leg…
To be honest, the idea of eating horse meat kind of turns my stomach. I know that people do it, but I would have issues with it. I think that would be worse than putting a dog on top of a car. There are also some people who are really upset about the way his administration has been dealing with the wild horse population out west.
the thing is we don't eat horses here. it's for foreigners. they were supposed to have voted today on banning double decker transport for said horses also, but it doesn't stop the slaughter. eating horses is like eating dogs. sick.
LBJ lifted his beagle by his ears,all hell broke loose.
Speaking of dog owners…you know those candid pictures of the Obamas "at home" in the White House? When was the last time you saw Bo in one of them? Bo's nothing but a prop, trotted out when they think it's time for another photo-op to show the peons what a nice family they are…dog and all. You could never get a picture of our family at home without the dog in it because she is always with the people who love her. Bo, not so much.
That poor dog probably hasn't a clue who his people are. He gets shunted from one WH staffer to another and then hauled in on a leash when a canine presence is deemed necessary. That's cruelty, too.
When have you ever seen Bo without a leash attached to his neck. Even in the limo, poor dog is attached to the leash.
obama is also allowing wolves to come off the endangered species list all over the US. a lot of lefties are PO'd.
and PETA puts animals down. they don't save them. get that truth out there.
LBJ actually loved his pets and took good care of them, aside from the beagle ear pick up which was the way many people back then were taught to handle animals. The dogs swimming with him constantly were adorable.
IMO, anyone who gets their pets ears clipped or tail docked, is guilty of animal abuse. I don't care what the breed standard says. Dogs need their tails for many reasons including balance.
Too bad you all can't see the LBJ ranch, the self sufficient farm treats the animals like royalty.