Romney's Dog Problem

From the Houston Chronicle

As the Republican primary race continues, the talk about Governor Mitt Romney's experience with dogs continues to make news. This was especially true in the past few days as the folks at Dogs Against Romney protested the Westminster Dog Show in New York city.

All of talk about Romney's dislike and mistreatment of dogs stems from a 2007 Boston Globe article in which Romney detailed the events of the family's 1983 vacation. The Romney family dog, Seamus, was loaded in his carrier and strapped to the top of the family's station wagon for the trip from Boston to Ontario.

Historically, pets have played a very important role in the lives of many presidents and lawmakers.

• FDR's dog Fala helped him win re-election
• President Ford would often signal his dog Liberty to break up a 
• President George Bush's dog Millie and her puppies entertained many of the White House's visiting guests 
• President Clinton's dog Buddy kept him company in the dog house during the Lewinsky scandal
• President George W. Bush's dogs Barney and Miss Beazley  hosted annual video tours of the White House's Christmas decorations. 

While the Romney family vacation was almost 30 years ago, he hasn't done much to dissolve the story. A recent meeting with President George and Mrs. Bush in Houston showed Romney's awkwardness around dogs.

There are more than 78 million dog owners in the United States and not being dog-friendly could sway some voters in what many consider what could a very close election. The Romney campaign should consider doing something to help the candidate's image and awkwardness around animals. Defeating an incumbent president with a dog could be a very tough challenge.  

More on Romney's latest press:

1. Huffington Post on Dogs Against Romney Protest
2. Saturday Night Live on Romney Primary Open 

Bark for Barack

The folks at Organizing for America have come up with a way to reach the large group of pet-loving voters and over the weekend the Pet Lovers for Obama Facebook page was launched.

Obama for American Bark for Barack car magnet

This isn't the first time presidential hopefuls have used their pets to aid their campaigns, but it is the first in recent history.

President FDR included Fala a re-election speech after being falsely accused of using taxpayer dollars the dog's travel expenses. The speech later became known as the Fala Speech.

“These Republican leaders have not been content with the attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog. Fala. Well, of course, I don’t resent attacks, and my family doesn’t resent attacks, but Fala does resent  them. You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I had left him behind on the Aleutian Islands and sent a destroyer back to find him—at a cost to taxpayers of 2 or 3, or 20 million dollars—his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since.” (watch the speech here)


It will be interesting to see how the campaign uses modern technology and the social networks to pet owners in this election year. The campaign is currently selling car magnets prominently featuring Bo and the slogan Bark for Barack. The Obama for America campaign store also sells a number of campaign items for pets, including Cats for Obama collars.

California Governor's Dog Helps Raise State Money

Sutter Brown from examiner.com

California Governor Jerry Brown has enlisted the help of his Corgi, Sutter to help close the state's deficit. Anyone remember how Fala helped raise money for the Britians?

The previous video was no longer working and has since been removed. Here's an updated link

Candidates Miss Opportunity to Gain Voter Support

Texas Governor Rick Perry's
Twitter profile picture.

We've heard a lot about Democrats, Republicans, blue-dogs, the Tea Party, Independents, write-ins and everyone in between over the past couple of months, but with only a few hours left to vote, I can't help think this election is missing something. While candidates and strategists often look at the successes of previous campaigns for guidance, they seem to have overlooked the winning strategy that served as the turning point in the the 1944 and 1952 presidential elections.

What is missing you ask? Pets!

In the last days of the 1944 presidential campaign, President Franklin D. Roosevelt faced much criticism from opponents, but was able to gain the support of voters with his Fala Speech. Opponents accused the president of spending millions of taxpayer dollars on his little dog Fala, but he confronted those allegations in the speech and was able to win re-election.

Senator Richard Nixon was accused of accepting gifts during the 1952 Presidential Election, but he learned from FDR's successful Fala Speech that incorporating a pet in to the speech could help gain the support of voters. On September 23, 1952, Senator Nixon delivered his Checkers Speech, about his new Cocker Spaniel puppy, Checkers, and was voted in as Vice President weeks later.

Pets are always quite popular in politics, but this year's candidates and their campaigns have forgotten to involve the candidates' pets. In searching for candidates and their pets, I could only find a twitter profile picture of Texas Governor Rick Perry with a cute, black lab puppy. Although, it's hard to tell from the picture whether the governor is showing off the puppy or his Aggie ring.

Despite not being involved in the campaigns, more pets are likely to arrive on Capitol Hill with the new Congress in January. Some may become as popular as Senator Ted Kennedy's Portuguese water dogs, others may make an appearance in videos much like Senator Kit Bond's dogs did in his annual Christmas message, or star in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's cat cam office tour.

FDR's re-election & the Fala Speech

On their return trip from Hawaii, President Roosevelt and Fala stopped to visit the Aleutian Islands. Their secret stop at Adak Island became highly scrutinized. A rumor was started that Fala had been accidently left behind on another island and the president sent at Navy destroyer ship back to get Fala for a cost of $20,000 at the taxpayers’ expense. The event became highly publicized during the 1944 presidential campaign and Republicans accused the president of spending millions of taxpayer dollars to fetch the little dog. The president confronted the allegations and defended his little dog during a campaign dinner speech to the International Brotherhood Teamsters Union, which was supposed to be an update on labor issues and the war, but became famously known as the “Fala Speech”:

“These Republican leaders have not been content with the attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog. Fala. Well, of course, I don’t resent attacks, and my family doesn’t resent attacks, but Fala does resent them. You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I had left him behind on the Aleutian Islands and sent a destroyer back to find him—at a cost to taxpayers of 2 or 3, or 20 million dollars—his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since.” (watch the speech here)

Political pundits noted the “Fala Speech” as the turning point in the 1944 presidential election. The speech exposed the pettiness of the Republican’s allegations and degraded candidate Thomas Dewey. Shortly before the election, a New York Times columnist noted in an October 15, 1944 article that “what is difficult for some folks to understand is that Fala is no longer just a dog; he’s a personage.” He also explained that a White House visitor once saw a door open, heard the announcement of the president and watched a little friendly dog with his tail wagging, enter the room. The election was decided and Roosevelt won almost 54 percent of the popular vote.

Over the years, Fala traveled with the president and met many dignitaries. War time comic strips and newspapers often featured the little dog. During the Battle of the Bulge, American soldiers would ask each other the name of the president’s dog as a safeguard against German soldiers infiltrating American forces.

President Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, two months before Germany surrendered in World War II. Fala was at his bedside when aids tried to revive the president, but their efforts were unsuccessful.

Some articles suggest that Fala knew what was going on and reacted harshly. “He leaped up, shaking violently, then went crashing through a screen door, barking loudly and frantically. As fast as his scrubby legs could take him, he raced up a nearby hill, where for a long time he stood vigil, refusing to return when called,” one article said. Fala attended the funeral and then went to live with Eleanor at the Vall Kill cottage, in Hyde Park, New York. Fala later died on the seventh anniversary of Roosevelt’s death in 1952 and was buried next to his master in an unmarked grave that reads, “master and constant companion for five years.” Fala’s obituary appeared on the front page of the New York Times Obituary section several days after his death. The announcement noted, “the rakish little black Scotty who sat in on the making of history…” When the Roosevelt memorial was built and dedicated in 1997, Fala was included, sitting next to his master. He is the only dog memorialized on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Travels with FDR & Becoming President

FDR and Fala were rarely seen apart and they often traveled together. One of Fala’s first notable trips with the president was in 1941 aboard the Prince of Wales when Roosevelt and England’s Prime Minister, Winston Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter, which brought the country closer to being involved in World War II. Shortly after his trip, Fala was named president of the Barkers for Britain, a sub-group of the Bundles for Britain organization.

Bundles for Britain collected clothing, blankets, money, and other donations to aid the British people after the aerial bombing by Nazi Germany and the U-boat attacks on shipping ports, which caused a large shortage of supplies.

Barkers was a way for dog owners to support the aid mission and sold memberships. Dog members were given an official Bundles for Britain dog tag which they could proudly wear on their collar.

Local Barkers chapters were created all over the country and more than 30,000 memberships were issued in about seven months at 50 cents a piece. Nearly 1,000 dogs in Australia also became

members. Fala was issued tag number one and signed membership certificates with his paw print. The president of Bundles for Britain, Mrs. Wales Latham wrote Fala thanking him for the efforts. “The first dog of the United States and a great leader of all loyal American canines, his voice in loud barks for the courageous people of Great Britian,” she wrote.

Fala also accompanied the president on many defense plant inspection trips and in 1943 he visited Mexico’s President Avila Camacho. The next year, Fala traveled to the first Quebec Conference in August of 1944. While he was at the conference, he wasn’t able to ride with the president but rode with the Secret Service in an open car following Roosevelt, Churchill, and Canada’s Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King. The next year, Roosevelt and Fala went to the second Quebec Conference where Roosevelt and Churchill discussed the impending failure of Germany, and later traveled to Honolulu.

More information on Fala and the Barkers for Britain can be found on the National Archives website.

Fala Roosevelt

Fala Roosevelt, from PBS.org

President Franklin Roosevelt had 11 dogs during his years in the White House, but his black Scottish terrier Fala was the one that most remember and is often considered to be one of the most famous and celebrated dogs in history. People often tried to give the president dogs as gifts when they discovered his love of canines, but many were not accepted and returned. One gift he did accept was a puppy from his sixth cousin Margaret Daisy Suckley. Suckley and her children had named the puppy Big Boy, but Roosevelt renamed the puppy after a Scottish ancestor “Murray the Outlaw of Fala Hill” and called him Fala. Stuckey trained Fala before he went to live at the White House.

Fala and President Roosevelt became inseparable and were not often seen apart. Eleanor Roosevelt disapproved of dogs living in the White House, but the president was adamant and the dog stayed. Fala attended press conferences, played outside the Oval Office, and often attended cocktail hour with the president. He made himself at home and slept at the foot of the president’s bed in a chair with a navy blanket. The Secret Service agents who guarded the president on out-of-town trips nicknamed Fala “the Informer” because where ever he was the president was not far away.

The White House staff and other guests often tried to give Fala treats and snacks, but too many snacks once gave him digestion problems which sent him to the hospital. After the incident, Roosevelt was the only one to feed Fala when he was home to prevent future ailments and obesity. The little dog had to do a series of tricks—roll over, shake hands, and beg—before he would get his dinner. On another occasion, a camera crew came to the White House to shoot footage of Fala for a film about the “First Dog.” The film crew gave him bacon as treats for his tricks, but made him sick. Rehearsing the tricks every day proved to be successful because the president would often have Fala do tricks at the beginning of meetings with dignitaries.

Fala is my favorite of all of the presidents' pets. This is just the first post of many. Check back for more on Fala.

Sources for this post and subsequent Fala posts are from:

1. Geoffery C. Ward, Closest Companion: The Unknown Story of the Intimate Friendship Between Franklin Roosevelt and Margaret Suckley. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1995. 134.
2. Margaret Truman, White House Pets. New York: David McKay Company, Inc. 1969. 71.
3. History. “FDR defends his dog.” September 23, 1944. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-defends-his-dog. (accessed on April 9, 2010.)
4. Mark Derr, “Fala, the Presidential Dog.” The Bark: dog is my co-pilot. http://www.thebark.com/content/fala-presidential-dog. (accessed on April 14, 2010).
5. The U.S. National Archives & Records Administration, “Fala and the Barkers for Britian.” Winter 2006, Volume 38. Number 4. http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2006/winter/pieces-fala.html.
6. Biography of Fala D. Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/education/resources/bio_fala.html (accessed on April 14, 2010.)
7. Charles MacDonald, A Time for Trumpets: the Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge. New York: Harper Perennial, 1997. 226.