How animal voters are shaping the 2008 presidential election

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON

Compassionate Campaigners

How animal voters are shaping the 2008 presidential election

Published On Thursday, February 28, 2008 12:59 AM

By LEWIS E. BOLLARD

 

John McCain has 22 pets, including a ferret, two turtles, and three parakeets.

Mike Huckabee has just two: a black Labrador named Jet and a Shih Tzu with the

oddly

non-conformist name of Sonic. As First Lady, Hillary Clinton wrote a book

titled,

" Dear Socks, Dear Buddy " featuring letters that children had written to

the First Pets, but now she just has Seamus the Labrador. Barack Obama has no

pets,

but true to the politics of hope, he has promised his two daughters he will get

a dog when the election finishes.

 

Only four to 10 percent of Americans are vegetarian, but two thirds have a pet,

and polls tell us that most of these people consider their pets to be family

members,

and many even say they'd die for their pets. And while fewer than 13 million

Americans now hunt, over 70 million observe, feed, or photograph wildlife on a

regular

basis. Of course, not all pet and wildlife lovers extend their concern with

animals

beyond their own Fido or favorite bird species, but many do, and they form a

powerful

new constituency against animal abuse.

 

This group of potential " animal voters " is news-savvy, socially integrated,

and politically active. These are the suburban soccer moms who buy free range

meat

at Whole Foods, cosmetics not tested on animals from the Body Shop, and who

quietly

shun Ringling Bros' animal circus when it comes to town. They're also the

people who sent over 300,000 e-mails to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell last July

successfully urging him to drop convicted dog fighter Michael Vick from the

league.

They're politically active, and willing to use their votes to protect the

defenseless.

 

This month, after the Humane Society of the United States exposed animal cruelty

at a California slaughterhouse, animal voters made thousands of phone calls,

sparking

the closure of the plant and the biggest meat recall in U.S. history. And, in an

unprecedented election event, they spurred the presidential candidates to issue

statements condemning animal abuse, with Obama last week explicitly commending

the

Humane Society's investigation.

 

Animal voters are not card carrying PETA members, and they've never picketed

a KFC in their lives. But they care about animals, and they see a candidate's

attitude to animals as a broader reflection of his compassion and character.

That's

why senators ranging from conservative Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania to liberal

Robert Byrd in West Virginia have sought the Humane Society Legislative Fund's

(HSLF) endorsement in their re-election bids. Animal protection is what

marketers

call a " signal issue " --something that shows voters that a candidate feels

the way they do, quite apart from any specific policies.

 

In the 2008 election, animal voters have already spoken up. They held Mitt

Romney

to account when Time revealed that in 1983 he had strapped his dog to the roof

of

his car in a twelve-hour drive from Boston to Ontario (his first excuse that " my

dog likes fresh air, " did not go down well with animal voters). And they

questioned

Mike Huckabee's judgment when Newsweek alleged that, as Governor of Arkansas,

he had intervened to stop an animal cruelty investigation into his son's hanging

and stoning to death of a stray dog.

 

The beneficiaries of the animal vote have been Senators McCain, Clinton, and

Obama.

McCain has chalked up a strong track record on animal issues, co-sponsoring

legislation

to stop horse slaughter, opposing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife

Refuge,

and voting to eliminate a two million dollar subsidy for the mink industry.

Obama,

meanwhile, has championed bans on horse slaughter and dog fighting, and

surprised

a Las Vegas town hall crowd in mid-January by telling them, " I think how we

treat our animals reflects how we treat each other, and it's very important

that we have a president who is mindful of the cruelty that is perpetrated on

animals. "

And Clinton has consistently opposed the slaughter of sick 'downer' cattle,

amongst other pro-animal stances, earning her a perfect score of 100 percent on

last year's HSLF Humane Scorecard.

 

In 1952, Senator Richard Nixon--besieged by corruption allegations--famously

shifted

attention with a televised reference to Checkers, a dog he had been given as a

political

gift. Nixon left the television studio downcast, but in the coming days, 250,000

Americans sent letters to the Republican National Committee endorsing Nixon, and

defending Checkers the dog.

 

No President since Chester A. Arthur has entered the White House without a pet.

Warren Harding campaigned with his Airedale Terrier, " Laddie Boy, " and

gave the mutt his own chair at cabinet meetings. The Scottish Terrier " Fala "

belonging to Franklin D. Roosevelt '04 had his own Secret Service moniker and

became an election issue in 1944 when FDR allegedly sent a destroyer to the

Sandwich

Islands to retrieve the dog after leaving it behind there. Calvin Coolidge once

remarked that " any man who does not like dogs and want them to be about does

not deserve to be in the White House. "

 

Maybe Obama should get his daughters that dog sooner.

 

Lewis E. Bollard '09 is a social studies concentrator in Kirkland House. His

column appears on alternate Thursdays

 

 

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=522170

 

 

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.

Confucius