After he resigned in disgrace, Andrew Cuomo seemed to want nothing to do with his former life. As the New York governor began leaving the state’s executive mansion, he seemed to do the same to his dog, Captain.
News began circulating over the weekend that Cuomo was scouting out possibilities for someone to care for the Shepherd-mix, which has remained at the Albany mansion since the governor moved out last week.
According to the Times Union, two State Police sources said on Saturday that the governor had recently asked staffers at his former residence if anyone would be interested in caring for the pooch, who made his earliest appearances in the executive mansion in 2018 as a squirming puppy. A mansion staffer recently took the dog home for a few days, the Times Union reported, but decided the dog, who has a history of nipping, was too much to handle.
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Within hours of the report, packs of dog lovers on both sides of the aisle began blasting Cuomo for ditching the dog.
Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) suggested on Twitter that the alleged abandonment was further proof that Cuomo was “a narcissistic sociopath.”
“I’ll take the puppy,” New York Assemblyman Ron Kim (D) wrote on Twitter.
“Not only the Worst Governor in America. The Worst Dog Owner in America.” wrote Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY). “You can tell people’s character by how they treat their animals.”
Photos snapped on Friday didn’t help Cuomo’s case. The pics showed U-Haul vans parked outside of the governor’s mansion, but Captain was nowhere to be found among the boxes being packed up in preparation for departure. The governor, who announced he was stepping down earlier this month over sexual misconduct allegations, bid farewell to New Yorkers on Monday.
In a statement the same day, the New York State Animal Protection Federation, which lobbies in the legislature on behalf of branches of The Humane Society, SPCAs, and non-profit and municipal animal shelters across the state, said that it was prepared to step in for Captain.
“Captain deserves better,” executive director Libby Post said. “He will be welcomed with open arms (and paws) into one of our shelters.”
Post, who is also a public radio commentator on WAMC, told The Daily Beast that she was relieved when she later received a call from Cuomo’s spokesperson Rich Azzopardi, who informed her that the dog’s displacement was temporary because Cuomo had plans for a vacation.
“I’m glad that Captain is ostensibly going with Cuomo to wherever he’s going in Westchester,” Post told The Daily Beast on Monday. “I hope that he’s well cared for and that when Cuomo goes on vacation that he either has a pet sitter or he’s boarded somewhere.”
Azzopardi tweeted in response to the criticism, “This is getting ridiculous. The Governor stayed downstate to monitor the storm (ie going [sic] his job.) He will be vacating the mansion tonight, as we said. Captain is a member of the family and he’s going to stay that way.”
Post wondered if the governor would indeed have given up his dog if not for media attention.
“Clearly we struck a nerve,” she added. “If this hadn’t come out, you have to wonder what would have happened.”
Suboptimal pet care among lawmakers is “unacceptable” but isn’t uncommon, Post said.
“Some politicians do get a dog to soften up their image and to make them look more like the guy next door,” she added.
It is not the first time a politician’s handling of a pup has ignited a Twitter tempest this year.
In February, a New York magazine reporter posted a photo on Twitter that showed a small white dog peeking out from a window at Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) home amid a winter storm that plunged Texas into freezing temperatures. In a bid to escape power outages that left millions of Texans and the pooch shivering and without running water, the Cruz family had a little getaway to Cancun, apparently ditching the fluffy white dog.
“The poodle's name appears to be Snowflake. Which is probably how it felt being left behind without heat in subzero weather,” Michael Hardy wrote.
During a bid for New York governor this spring, Andrew Yang was similarly plagued when he wrote about an experience surrendering his family pet to a new owner.
On National Pets Day in April, Yang wrote that his family had cared for a small white dog since puppyhood before handing the dog over to a new caretaker when his son developed allergies. The post raised the hackles of dog defenders who suggested he had all but abandoned the dog.
In May, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) faced a mix of backlash and admiration after she posted a video on Twitter which showed her tossing her Golden retriever a wrapped burrito for his birthday. Politico cited the incident in Playbook the next morning: “Cute! Yet vaguely disturbing. … Why would someone give their dog a fully wrapped burrito?”
But dogs have long been the sidekicks of politicians looking to boost their public profile, said Post, who has lobbied with lawmakers for policies that protect animals since she began running the animal advocacy group in 2013.
She cited the now infamous story of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who was haunted by canine fans when The Boston Globe reported that the former Massachusetts governor had fallen short on dog duties. Romney strapped his Irish setter, Seamus, in a carrier to the roof of a station wagon, and the dog soiled himself during a 12-hour drive to Canada in the summer of 1983.
“A brown liquid was dripping down the back window, payback from an Irish setter who’d been riding on the roof in the wind for hours,” the story reads. According to the account from his son, Romney hosed down the dog and drove on.
