You say that things were different, standards, in 1983. In 1983 I was already in my 30's and so I was a mature adult and would never in one hundred million years put a dog in a crate and tied it to the top of my car, let alone RETURN that same dog to the crate after he had clearly shown distress (in dogs, dog caretakes know, GI distress can be symptomatic of emotional distress). What Romney did was beyond belief. The man is an idiot. Only an idiot would travel for over 100 miles to Canada with the poor dog stuck in his kennel or carrier or whatever, on top of the car. Neil Swidey, it's very simple. He was an idiot, a cruel and selfish and remorseless animal abuser. To dismiss what he did as being related to "different standards" is sickening.

You can judge a person by how he treats animals.

The standards were different back then. When my family went on road trips they put down the back seat of the station wagon and we three kids rode back there unbuckled sitting on sleeping bags, etc but our dog was in the way back with us and not on the roof

You really aren't worried about the lead graf of your "eventual obituary," Mr. Swidley. You are scraping from the bottom because quite simply folks love to read about pols and their pets. (Richard Nixon's 'Checkers' speech being one famous example). To aspire to a higher calling here would be ideal, but you seem to be missing that calling.

After reading this, I'm surprised that Mitt even allowed his family to have a dog. I'll bet Mitt used "Purell" to sanitize his hands each time he touched the dog, if in fact, he ever did.