Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is in the doghouse with PETA after she brought home a French bulldog puppy rather than setting an example with her scores of social media followers and adopting her new pet from an animal shelter.
"AOC had a chance to set a compassionate, responsible example in the face of the homeless-animal crisis, but instead, she apparently inadvertently contributed to the problem," PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a letter to the New York Democrat, reports Fox News.
"PETA is urging her supporters not to follow her lead in this case and to stick up for the underdog by choosing to give a lovable mutt a new lease on life," Newkirk added in the letter, which was posted on Twitter.
Earlier this week, Ocasio-Cortez introduced her new puppy to the public on social media, while asking for suggestions for his name. She has not said where she got her dog.
Newkirk however, complained that French bulldogs are "inbred in order to produce 'breed-specific traits'" that cause health issues, and urged her to visit a shelter in New York City and find her puppy a friend.
Ocasio-Cortez said on Instagram that she's working to crate train her puppy, and posted a picture of her dog sleeping on her lap in response to a Twitter user who asked if the dog will come to Washington, D.C. She quipped that "the goal is to train him to be a community pup. Ideally, we want to work to the point where he can enjoy town halls, be an Amtrak pup, come to the office, etc. But first, naps.”
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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