Did Maine’s Governor Steal a Dog?
Maine’s colourful governor is at it again.
Paul LePage, who has earned a national profile as a kind of Down East Trump, adopted a dog from the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society. But adopting a shelter dog is a good thing, right?
Yes, unless you jump the line and adopt the dog ahead of others. Or at least that’s what a report in Maine’s Sun Journal alleges.
Heath Arsenault said she wanted to adopt the dog as emotional support after a traumatic assault and had planned to wait in line for him, as per the rules at the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society in Lewiston.
“I just saw him — and then I saw Jasper and I saw him holding Jasper — and I just started to cry,” she said. “I felt like they lied to me.”
The shelter’s development director said of the gubernatorial rule change: “The governor walks in your front door and it sort of shifts things a little.”
The shelter says that LePage didn’t ask for the special treatment.
The pup now has a new name thanks to its new owner. He’s no longer Jasper, but instead will go by “Veto” in honour of Maine’s complicated democracy.