Traian Basescu
Băsescu, a former sea captain and legendary dog killer, sparked an international outcry – including from cinema legend Brigitte Bardot – in 2001 when as mayor of Bucharest he ordered that hundreds of dogs strays are rounded up and killed. At the time, Bucharest had up to 200,000 stray dogs, according to media reports. Despite protesters comparing him to Hitler, Băsescu did not back down – continuing his crusade against dogs even as he became Romanian president a few years later. “No protests from animal foundations and politicians will make me stop the plan to kill stray dogs,” Băsescu roared. Frankly, he makes Noem look like the poster child for a good dog mom.
Jeremy Thorpe
The British political scandals of the 1970s had different consequences. Thorpe, then a rising star leader of the Liberals, allegedly hatched a plan in 1975 to fire Norman Scott, her former lover, who had threatened to expose their relationship to the media. Thorpe has always denied anything physical in their relationship. In October of that year, Scott met Andrew Newton, a pilot posing as a guard hired to protect him. Newton – who was allegedly hired by Thorpe’s close friends – shot Scott’s pet Great Dane Rinka, then allegedly turned the gun on Scott, but the gun jammed and Scott was able to flee. During the trial that followed, Newton was imprisoned for the murder of a dog. The judge, however, did not believe Newton’s claim that he had agreed to murder Scott for a fee of between £10,000 and £20,000, and Thorpe was acquitted. The saga was depicted in a BBC drama, starring Hugh Grant as Thorpe.
Andrew McDonald, Bartosz Brzeziński, Stephan Faris and Kaitlyn Locke contributed to this report.
Politico
