Will #PuppyKiller Dr. Oz Finally Get Mitt Romney Out of the Dog House?

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Remember this mini-scandal from the 2012 campaign that cost Willard “Mittens” Romney votes among dog lovers? Mitt Romney’s Dog Incident Comes Back To Haunt Him:

When Mitt Romney strapped his Irish setter to the roof of his car in 1983 and drove all the way to Canada as the dog defecated in fear, he couldn’t have guessed his decision would follow him for decades, enraging animal lovers and raising questions about his character and management style.

Sure enough the dog incident has gotten a lot of press (Gail Collins has mentioned it 19 times in her columns) and is sure to be a favorite topic among Romney detractors during his 2012 campaign for president.

Romney was unthinking and uncaring, but probably was not intentionally cruel (you be the judge). The same cannot be said of TV doctor/grifter of useless supplements Mehmet Oz, the pride of New Jersey.

Jezebel reports, Dr. Oz’s Scientific Experiments Killed Over 300 Dogs, Entire Litter of Puppies:

In a scandal that will surely make Mitt Romney—who famously strapped his family dog atop the roof of his car for a road trip—look like a PETA activist, a review of 75 studies published by Mehmet Oz between 1989 and 2010 reveals the Republican Senate candidate’s research killed over 300 dogs and inflicted significant suffering on them and the other animals used in experiments.

Oz, the New Jersey resident who’s currently running for U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, was a “principal investigator” at the Columbia University Institute of Comparative Medicine labs for years and assumed “full scientific, administrative, and fiscal responsibility for the conduct” of his studies. Over the course of 75 studies published in academic journals reviewed by Jezebel, Oz’s team conducted experiments on at least 1,027 live animal subjects that included dogs, pigs, calves, rabbits, and small rodents. Thirty-four of these experiments resulted in the deaths of at least 329 dogs, while two of his experiments killed 31 pigs, and 38 experiments killed 661 rabbits and rodents.

In the early 2000s, testimony from a whistleblower and veterinarian named Catherine Dell’Orto about Oz’s research detailed extensive suffering inflicted on his team’s canine test subjects, including multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act, which sets minimum standards of care for dogs, cats, primates, rabbits, and other animals in the possession of animal dealers and laboratories. The law specifically requires researchers and breeders to use pain-relieving drugs or euthanasia on the animals, and not use paralytics without anesthesia, or experiment multiple times on the same animal.

Dell’Orto testified that a dog experimented on by Oz’s team experienced lethargy, vomiting, paralysis, and kidney failure, but wasn’t euthanized for a full two days. She alleged other truly horrifying examples of gratuitously cruel treatment of dogs, including at least one dog who was kept alive for a month for continued experimentation despite her unstable, painful condition, despite how data from her continued experimentation was deemed unusable. According to Dell’Orto, one Oz-led study resulted in a litter of puppies being killed by intracardiac injection with syringes of expired drugs inserted in their hearts without any sedation. Upon being killed, the puppies were allegedly left in a garbage bag with living puppies who were their littermates. Dell’Orto’s allegations, made in 2003 and 2004, are detailed in letters from PETA to the university and USDA. In an interview with Billy Penn last month, she acknowledged PETA “is not a reliable source of information,” but said the organization’s letters honestly reflected what she told the organization and provided documentation for.

In May 2004, Columbia University was ordered by the USDA to pay a $2,000 penalty for violations of the Animal Welfare Act. The fine paid by Columbia was the result of a settlement between the university and the USDA, based on the findings of Columbia’s internal investigation of Oz’s research. The USDA accepted these findings, but according to Dell’Orto, the review was faulty, and “had investigators on the committee that were also complicit in this type of poorly designed, cruel animal experimentation.” Dell’Orto also noted that while Oz wasn’t the one who euthanized the dogs and puppies himself, “When your name is on the experiment, and the way the experiment is designed inflicts such cruelty to these animals, by design, there’s a problem.”

Months after paying the $2,000 fine, in December 2004, Columbia defended Oz amid the animal abuse allegations, calling him “a highly respected researcher and clinician” who adhered “to the highest standards of animal care,” but neglected to deny any of the specific allegations Dell’Orto had made against Oz. On Monday, Jezebel reached out to Columbia’s office of communications and public affairs as well as Oz’s Senate campaign. Columbia declined to comment, and Oz’s campaign has yet to respond. Notably, in April this year, the Daily Beast reported that the university had seemingly cut all ties with Oz, stripping his personal pages from the medical center’s website. Oz formerly held senior positions including vice chair of surgery and director of integrated medicine at the medical center.

Oz is currently running against Pennsylvania’s Democratic lieutenant governor John Fetterman. Owing to a number of bizarre gaffes on the campaign trail, including a comically out-of-touch campaign video of Oz calling vegetables “crudités” and the resurfacing of his history of creepy comments toward women, Oz has been trailing Fetterman for much of the race. But after a slew of obsessive, anti-Fetterman Fox News segments, and key police endorsements of Oz, the latest polling shows the race tightening.

In an interview with Jezebel last month, Fetterman’s wife, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, referenced long-running animal abuse allegations against Oz in a warning to voters. “I think if you look at a profile of someone who makes misogynistic comments, who abuses animals, who does all these things, you’re getting a picture of someone who’s a pretty dangerous person,” Gisele said. “That’s certainly not someone I would want making decisions on my rights or any other women’s and folks’ rights in the state, deciding whether doctors go to jail for performing life-saving services.”

Dog abuse allegations against Oz are a drop in the candidate’s proverbial bucket of scandals at this point—but given the all-American tradition of loving dogs more than humans, it might be hard to sweep this one under the rug.

Just ask Mitt Romney!

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman has branded his Republican opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz “sick” following a report that Oz supervised experiments that caused the deaths of more than 300 dogs:

Fetterman, who is running for Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat and is currently the state’s lieutenant governor, took to Twitter on Monday and accused Oz of being a “puppy killer.”

“I LOVE my dogs,” Fetterman tweeted. “Apparently some sick people like Dr. Oz get their jollies by harming animals…”

“We have a close race here in PA and I could use your help to keep the #PuppyKiller out of the US Senate,” he said, sharing a link to a fundraising page that showed him pictured with two dogs.

Screen Shot 2022-10-04 at 12.06.36 PMScreen Shot 2022-10-04 at 12.07.24 PM

Fetterman was responded to U.S. Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who urged donations to the Democrat’s campaign earlier on Monday, tweeting: “IF YOU LOVE DOGGOS GIVE TO ⁦@JohnFetterman ⁩WHO LOVES DOGGOS!”

Unlike #PuppyKiller Dr. Oz, dog lover John Fetterman regularly includes his rescue dog Levi in his campaign social media.

Levi Fetterman even has his own page at the John Fetterman for Senate campaign web page (click on Meet the Fettermans at top of page).





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7 thoughts on “Will #PuppyKiller Dr. Oz Finally Get Mitt Romney Out of the Dog House?”

  1. This is before it was known that Oz sacrificed and tormented hundreds of dogs in his so-called “research”. I wonder if he euthanized Teddy after the photo op.

    Dr. Mehmet Oz
    @DrOz

    US Senate candidate, PA
    The last week of a campaign can be stressful, thank you to therapy dog Teddy for the free session #PupsForOz
    6:29 AM · May 13, 2022
    Twitter Web App

    https://twitter.com/DrOz/status/1525106022049890306

    • John Fetterman
      @JohnFetterman

      US Senate candidate, PA
      Has anyone seen this dog since May?

      2:45 PM · Oct 4, 2022
      Twitter Web App

  2. “Dog abuse allegations against Oz are a drop in the candidate’s proverbial bucket of scandals at this point—but given the all-American tradition of loving dogs more than humans, it might be hard to sweep this one under the rug.”

    People seem to know very little about the horrors of using animals for “research.” And many people seem to dismiss it as necessary without knowing or perhaps even caring how much of this so-called research is bogus or unnecessary or has no chance of producing results of any value to anyone.

    There are a number of organizations trying to educate the masses, PETA and the Humane Society being the most well known. They seem to be making some progress, but for whatever reasons, it’s difficult to get people to care about this. Oz is, unfortunately, not the only one who engaged in cruel and useless animal experiments. He’s got plenty of company.

    People got riled up about Romney’s dog because he was a pet.

    • “In May 2004, Columbia University was ordered by the USDA to pay a $2,000 penalty for violations of the Animal Welfare Act.”

      The amount of the fine shows how little we value the lives of animals.

      We really need to do better. But at least this is getting some exposure.

      • I told Rascal about the Mengele level of atrocities Oz committed. Rascal now wants to meet the “good doctor” for the express purpose of biting him….repeatedly.

        • We’re on our fifth and sixth rescue dogs (Chloe and Vivian).

          We have strong feelings about animal torture.

          So I would like to offer to hold Oz down while Rascal does some chewing. Might a few bites myself.

          Oz probably did more harm to his human viewers pushing snake oil while he got paid millions to do so, but those people had a choice.

          Mengele is a good reference. And Liza is right and even understating the problem, the penalties for animal abuse are weak.

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