I’m fairly certain that everybody, including the dog, would have been happier had she been in a crate on the roof.
Freelancer on June 28, 2007 at 6:50 PM

YHa! During our obligatory cross-country trip our parents would have been delighted to put us kids in a crate on the roof. We were forced out somewhere in the Texas panhandle to march until our parents decided the trip would take too long if they had to drive behind us for the next thousand miles.

I’m left wondering what exactly Mitt supposedly did wrong since the conventional wisdom (and even some laws!
) say it safer to have a dog in a crate then loose in a vechicle. The idea the crate must be situated with humans is also a nonsensical idea since that is not the case in any type of commercial transport of animals.

Mitt is a decent human being. The concrete veracity of this story notwithstanding, it would be very difficult to convince me he is prone to animal cruelty. I rmember sharing the back section of a 1960 Ford station wagon with two brothers and a medium-large dog during a long vacation drive. I’m fairly certain that everybody, including the dog, would have been happier had she been in a crate on the roof.

and it was NOT on a leftist blog either.

That said, strapping your dog in a crate on top of your car for a 12 hour trip is completely F’d up, and I can’t believe any dog owner would find it excusable. I’d never even consider doing such a thing to mine.

A dog won’t crap in it’s crate unless it absolutely has to- that’s one of the reasons dog owners use crates in the first place. If the dog pooped in the crate, it was either in there far too long or was literally scared s*&tless.

And no, it’s not the same as a dog sticking it’s head out the window, not by a longshot.

Mitt W. Griswold……LMAO

Dog on car top = criminal behavior.
Woman in sunk car = no big deal.

Limerick on June 28, 2007 at 12:48 AM

Good friggin’ point!!

All over the midwest/south/mountain west dogs ride unrestrained in the open beds of a pickup truck. The dogs seem to love it (not a dog whisperer, so, can’t say for sure) but they certainly don’t seem to hate their owners.

Romney puts a dog in a crate and secures it to the roof of the car (in a time where the max speed limit was 55mph) and suddenly people are ready to crucify him as an animal torturer.

I don’t know all the facts (certainly couldn’t get them from that write-up where she’s not even sure the family finished the alleged trip) but, it’s entirely possible that the dog was at least as safe strapped into the crate up top as he would have been unrestrained in the car (which is how most people travel with their pooches at speeds much higher than 55mph).

If someone has evidence of actual animal cruelty or the fact that Romney’s pets are terrified of him, I’d be happy to read up on it, but, as of now, this story is a non-story.

Cox seems to be insinuating that Romney might consider tying terrorists to the tops of station wagons and driving them to Ontario.
aero on June 28, 2007 at 9:35 AM

And WITHOUT potty breaks!

csdeven on June 28, 2007 at 12:50 PM

Heck, if you’re lookin for real torture…take them to Quebec!

Romney Leaves garden Hoses on Lawn

Romney Joins In Brutal Pine Cone Fight (1953)

Romney Leaves Seat Up

I mean really…”Cruel Canine Vacation”???

Cox seems to be insinuating that Romney might consider tying terrorists to the tops of station wagons and driving them to Ontario.
aero on June 28, 2007 at 9:35 AM

And WITHOUT potty breaks!

i defy any pprogressive democratic to link for us a hit piece this strained and trifling under any byline of comparable signifigance and expposure to “time in cooperation with cnn”.

What’s the deal with the enhanced interrogation techniques reference? What the hell does that have to do with a dog on a car roof?

JamesP on June 28, 2007 at 3:24 AM

Cox seems to be insinuating that Romney might consider tying terrorists to the tops of station wagons and driving them to Ontario.

Hmmm. First time I’ve considered voting for Romney…

PETA should ban thunderstorms! Thunderstorms are Torture! Precipitation is Cruciation!

Can you imagine what that crate did to the car’s mileage?? Oh the humanity! Stop this maniac now! Who knows what he’ll do next?

JWS on June 28, 2007 at 9:19 AM

Hehe!
Remember the timing! 55 mph! The law! No wonder it took 12 hours to get to Ontario.

The incident: dog excrement found on the roof and windows of the Romney station wagon

.
That’s an “incident?” What does the word, “incident” mean you worthless journalistas?

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,

The poop’s definitive, but the question of whether an alleged trip took place isn’t.

despite Seamus’s rather visceral protest.

Who’s injecting opinion here? Dog’s can poop without “protesting” anything. Digestive tracks – what goes in must come out. The bigger the dog, the bigger the you-know-what, and if it’s that stupid corn-stuffed diet we insist on feeding our carnivores, then lots of you-know-what comes out. Dogs really don’t digest corn well, if at all, judging from the copious quantites of … you know. How do we know the dog objected to anything? A dog on a car roof, head and shoulders about any other stinking dog in three states? Protest? The writerista don’t know much about dogs.

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.”

Cruel according to who? Which is safer? Letting a large Irish Setter hang out the window unsecured to hang his drippy tongue in the wind to bark and lunge at every vehicle that passes, ESPECIALLY if there is a dog inside or better yet a cat, or sticking him in a cage where he has the best view in the vehicle and isn’t bounding back and forth over the kids from one window to the other to bark at whatever strikes his territorial fancy? or sticking him in a crate and putting him on top? He can slobber all he wants up there, 360 degree view, no kids to trample on.

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.”

Let’s throw this “expert” opinion in from an unnamed source just to be able to write “Prevention of CRUELTY TO ANIMALS (you low-life bum!) with a worthless quote “something I’d definitely want to check out.” “If it happened today, I could check it out, but I was 3 years old when the incident allegedly happened, and wasn’t employed yet at the Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.” Course, “checking out” is neutral. What if he determined that it was a great way to carry a dog, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
The overwhelming evidence in favor of the Romney’s is if the dog survived the trip in good humor, good condition and lived many years fat and sassy. Course, with the way this thing was written, we are taking a lot on faith that there even was a dog, a trip and poop on the roof. The reporterista shows the Liberal bias: all concerned about the dog relieving itself in the crate on the car roof and absolutely NO sympathy for the hapless Romney kid who was tasked by his parents to hose it all off.

Dork.