Traian Băsescu
Băsescu, a former sea captain and legendary dog-slayer, triggered an international outcry — including from film legend Brigitte Bardot — in 2001 when as Bucharest mayor he ordered hundreds of stray dogs to be rounded up and killed. At the time Bucharest had as many as 200,000 roaming stray dogs, according to media reports. Despite protesters comparing him to Hitler, Băsescu didn’t back down — continuing his anti-dog crusade even as he became Romanian president some years later. “No protest by 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
U.K. political scandals in the 1970s hit differently. Thorpe, then a rising star as leader of the Liberals, allegedly hatched a plan in 1975 to dispatch of Norman Scott — his former lover, who had threatened to reveal their relationship to the media. Thorpe always denied any physical element in their relationship. In October of that year Scott met Andrew Newton, a pilot posing as a minder hired to protect him. Newton — who was allegedly hired by close friends of Thorpe — shot Scott’s pet Great Dane Rinka, and then allegedly turned the gun on Scott, but the gun jammed and Scott was able to get away. In the trial that followed, Newton was jailed for the canine killing. The judge, however, didn’t believe Newton’s claim that he had agreed to murder Scott for between £10,000 and £20,000, and Thorpe was acquitted. The saga was portrayed in a BBC drama, with Hugh Grant as Thorpe.
Andrew McDonald, Bartosz Brzeziński, Stephan Faris and Kaitlyn Locke contributed to this report.
