Would You Vote for a Candidate Who Abused Animals?

Would you vote for someone who intentionally killed his neighbor's dogs? What if he abused his ex-wife, too? That's exactly who Jefferson County, Alabama put on the ballot for their school board.

Mike Grissom defended his criminal record with an explanation notably lacking in the remorse department. "Both of these were reduced to misdemeanors. I'm not a rapist or a murderer." Unless you count the murder of two of his neighbor's dogs who died after he fed them deer meat soaked in antifreeze. A third dog survived, but only after expensive veterinary treatments. 

The police report on the domestic violence charge said that he and his ex-wife had gotten into a heated argument, which ended with him slamming her arm in a church door and holding it there until someone responded to her call for help. His response? "I never hit her, but her hand did get caught between two doors ... The next time a woman calls the police on me, I'm gonna claw my face, beat myself up and pull what little hair I have left out of my head, and when the popo gets there, I'm gonna say, 'Please help me.'"

That little incident was three years after he supposedly graduated from anger management classes mandated by the animal cruelty charge. Clearly it didn't stick. And when he killed the dogs, it was premeditated. After "stepping in dog mess all the time," he says "I just snapped," but apparently he didn't snap back out of it because it took two nights of leaving a bowl full of antifreeze and deer meat outside to get the job done.

Grissom is not the first, nor the last, political candidate known to abuse animals. It goes all the way to the top — just take a look at Mitt Romney, who ran for the Republican nomination for the White House in 2008 and seems to be gunning for another try in 2012. During his last campaign, it came out that he had strapped a dog carrier with the family's Irish Setter to the roof of the family station wagon for a 12 hour drive. The dog understandably freaked out and excrement was found on the roof and windows of the station wagon. His campaign never commented about the incident, but if he plans to stay in politics, I think people deserve to know whether he understands the cruelty of his actions, or thinks he was the one who was wronged by the media coverage around his dog.

Mike Grissom insists, "I'm not an animal hater. As a matter of fact, I have a cat." I don't know about you, but I'm very worried about that cat's welfare.

The correlation between animal cruelty and other violent crimes isn't a secret, as evidenced in Mr. Grissom himself. Frankly, I'm not getting the vibe that he understands why his history of violence against animals and women was wrong. Is this really who Jefferson County wants influencing the future of their children?

Photo credit: Florian