| schema:text
| - Rick Scott adopted a rescue dog during gubernatorial campaign and later returned the animal.
Scott did not seek to adopt the pet for purely political reasons and get rid of it when dog ownership was no longer politically expedient.
In August 2010,
Scott's Facebook page crowdsourced a name for the dog during his candidacy. When the pet's adoption was complete, the page was updated to inform supporters of the dog's new name: "The Scott family is proud to announce that the name (chosen by you) for their newly adopted pup is Reagan! Thanks to everyone who participated in the fun contest."
Scott was spotted walking Reagan a day before he was sworn in as governor, but the dog soon disappeared from the public eye, and Scott's camp became reluctant to discuss the pet. Reagan's notable absence dogged Scott's campaign staff, and by January 2013, the Tampa Bay Times began investigating the animal's whereabouts.
On
Brian Burgess, communications director during the campaign and for more than a year after Scott took office, now holds a similar position for the state GOP. When a Times reporter asked him where the dog is, Burgess said he thought it "weird" that two Times reporters would contact him six minutes apart with questions dating back to the 2010 campaign.
But he wouldn't say where the dog was and accused reporters of "surfing some old Facebook or website pages." At one point an exasperated reporter asked Burgess if he had killed the dog, and Burgess denied ever killing a dog, but still wouldn't say where Reagan was.
Burgess testily emailed that he was working on an answer and recognized "the potential for a PR nightmare if the Tampa Bay Times doesn't receive a photo of Reagan next to today's copy of the Tampa Bay Times. So take it to the bank I'm getting you every bit of info I can lay my hands on."
Burgess said he was referring all questions about the dog to Melissa Sellers, the governor's new communications director. Sellers responded over two days that she was far too busy to find an answer to the question.
A representative for Scott's wife, Ann, was similarly unwilling to discuss Reagan, confirming the family had a dog named Tallee who was also a rescue animal. Ultimately, the paper directly confronted Scott about Reagan's whereabouts and received an answer.
According to the governor, Reagan had behavioral issues with which he and his staff were
"He was a rescue dog," Scott said, "and he couldn't be around anybody that was carrying anything, and so he wouldn't get better."
Scott said Reagan never bit anyone but "scared the living daylights" out of people at the mansion. He said one kitchen employee threatened to quit and photographer Eric Tournay was frightened when the dog "barked like crazy" every time he saw him with a camera.
So the Scotts gave the dog back to his prior owner, Scott said, about a month after the family moved to Tallahassee. The governor's office said it was trying to find Reagan and its new family.
Scott told the paper Tallee was also a "needy" dog but described behavior that was not as upsetting to staffers as Reagan's had been. It was later confirmed Reagan had been returned to All Pets Grooming and Boarding in Naples, Florida, but it was not clear whether he was subsequently
While it's true Florida Gov. Rick Scott adopted a shelter dog during the 2010 election and later returned the pet to a shelter, the fact he quickly adopted another shelter dog suggests Reagan was indeed a bad fit for the family and the Governor's mansion, and the animal was not simply a prop rented for the election season and discarded afterwards. Had Scott truly only adopted the dog for good press, it's unlikely the family would have immediately taken in another shelter pet after surrendering the first one.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)