Event

Date	June 1983
Location	Romneys' station wagon enroute from Belmont, Massachusetts to Beach O'Pines, Ontario
First reporter	Reported by Neil Swidey in The Boston Globe, June 2007[1]
Participants	Mitt Romney, his wife Ann Romney, their children, and their pet dog Seamus
The Romneys' Irish setter, Seamus

During a 1983 family vacation, Mitt Romney drove for 12 hours with his dog Seamus on top of the car in a windshield-equipped carrier.^[1][2][3][4] This incident became the subject of negative media attention and political attacks against Romney in both the 2008 presidential election and the 2012 presidential election.

Road trip

In June 1983, Romney and his family drove from their Belmont, Massachusetts home to a family cottage in Beach O'Pines, Ontario, for their annual vacation. Seamus rode on the roof of the family's Chevrolet Caprice station wagon, in a carrier which Romney had equipped with a windshield in order to make the ride more comfortable for Seamus.^[1] Sometime during the 650-mile trip from Massachusetts to Ontario, the dog became afflicted with diarrhea, causing excrement to flow down the windows of the car. Romney stopped at a gas station to wash Seamus, the carrier and the car, then put Seamus back in his carrier, and continued the 12-hour trip to the family's vacation home.^[1][2]

Seamus, the Romneys' Irish setter

Seamus (/[invalid input: 'icon']ˈʃeɪməs/ SHAY-muss), an Irish setter, was an active, outgoing dog, and was the Romney family's first pet dog.^[5] It is generally reported that, a few years after his ride to Canada, Seamus was given to Mitt Romney's sister, Jane Romney Robinson of California, who said, "He kept ending up at the pound. They were worried about him getting hit crossing the street. We had more space, so he could roam more freely."^[6] The dog's date of death is unknown, but Robinson stated that Seamus lived on her farm until a "ripe old age."^[7]

Response from the Romney family

During a 2012 interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News, Romney stated that Seamus enjoyed being in the dog carrier, an "air-tight kennel"[1], and said that he was not aware of any violations of Massachusetts law.^[8] Ann Romney said that the news media had 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. During the same interview, Ann Romney stated that Seamus loved riding in the crate, and that the dog's diarrhea stemmed from eating turkey off the counter before the trip.^[9][10]

Commentary and analysis

During the 2012 U.S. Republican presidential primaries, candidate Newt Gingrich aired an anti-Romney attack ad that featured the story.^[11][12] During an appearance on the ABC show This Week, Republican candidate Rick Santorum stated, "As far as Seamus the dog ... the issues of character are important in this election. We need to look at all those issues and make a determination as to whether that’s the kind of person [Romney] you want to be president of the United States.”^[13]

Scott Crider, owner of the website Dogs Against Romney, said that the incident had "struck a chord" because people "look at their own pet and say, ‘This is a member of my family. How can you even think about putting it on top of a car?’"^[14] Conversely, journalist Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post defended Mitt Romney's treatment of Seamus, stating, "Doesn’t the fact that Romney chose to bring the dog on the family vacation, rather than dump him in a kennel back home, suggest that he’s a dog lover, not a hater?"^[15] Neil Swidey, the Boston Globe journalist who wrote the initial article about Romney's 1983 road trip, stated, "[Seamus] always struck me as a valuable window into how Romney operates. In everything the guy does, he functions on logic, not emotion."^[16]

A Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey found that 74% of Democrats, 66% of Independents, and 63% of Republicans consider it inhumane to put a family dog in a kennel on the roof of a car. The poll also found that 35% of voters would be less likely to vote for Romney because of the Seamus incident, whereas 55% of voters said that it would not affect how they vote.^[17] As of May 2012, New York Times columnist Gail Collins had mentioned the car trip more than 61 times.^[18][19]

The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals declined to comment on the legality of Romney's actions, but noted that it is illegal in Massachusetts to transport a dog "in a way that endangers it." Ingrid Newkirk, the president of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) labeled the incident as animal cruelty and torture.^[20]

References

External links

• Neil Swidey and Stephanie Ebbert (June 27, 2007). "Journeys of a shared life: Raising sons, rising expectations bring unexpected turns". Boston Globe.
• Dave Price (June 30, 2007). "Romney Loves His Dog" (video). WHO-DT.
• Angie Drobnic Holan (September 13, 2011). "Mitt Romney and the dog on the car roof: one columnist's obsession". PolitiFact.com.
• "Romney on his dog Seamus" (video). Wall Street Journal. December 21, 2011.
• Gingrich presidential campaign (January 12, 2012). "Newt Gingrich attack ad dogs Mitt Romney over putting pooch on roof" (article with video link). Mediaite.
• Diane Sawyer (April 16, 2012). "Transcript: Mitt and Ann Romney's interview with Diane Sawyer (page 8)". ABC News.