Despite clear outrage from pet owners, animal welfare organizations and the blogsphere, the Mitt Romney campaign continues to make light of the former Mass. governor’s treatment of the family dog.

A few commenters have expressed doubt about just how bad it was for poor Seamus Romney to be on top of the car. Well, don’t listen to us, listen to the experts:

Aerospace engineering professor: “At that speed, assuming sea level conditions, the poor little dog would have about 10 pounds per square foot pressing against his head. He would constantly feel a little less than 3 pounds pressing on his head for the entire trip. The windshield would help, but boy that would get tired.

“Chances are the windshield would only protect the front of the dog, but the air flowing around the windshield would buffet the side of the dog — that would be tiring. My wife’s a vet, and she would be more worried by the dehydration of the dog’s eyes under those conditions.”

Physics and astronomy senior faculty fellow: “What happens to a dog in this situation is precisely what would happen to any of us in the same situation: Trapped in a box for 12 hours would be no one’s idea of comfortable.”

Dog walking service owner: “It would be one thing if someone put it down or forgot and then drove 50 feet and realized what they did. I don’t know anyone who would purposefully do that to a dog.”

The Boston Globe, whose original profile shed light into Romney’s startling behavior published this column with a healthy dose of sarcasm:

I’m not a dog owner, so I can’t say with certainty what the right answer would have been here, but somehow I suspect that if the question of what to do with Seamus was presented as a Harvard Business School case study, the remedy Mitt arrived at would not be widely seized upon as the most intelligent choice.

Several alternatives present themselves. I have heard that it’s possible to pay to board one’s dog at bed-and-breakfast-like establishments generically referred to as “the kennel.” Or even, if one has the means, to engage what is known as a “dog sitter.”

If the rooftop ride really was such a smart solution, at the very least Mitt could have taken a turn up there himself. Certainly he’s proved resolute in the face of risk, at least in the business world, and I have it on good report that the hair product he uses is guaranteed to hold fast in gusts of up to 70 miles an hour.

More on the reactions to Seamus Romney’s treatment after the jump.

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Presidential candidate Mitt Romney came to his own rescue (sort of) on a Thursday campaign stop. In defending his actions of strapping the family dog in a crate to the top of the car for 12 hours, he said “[the dog, Seamus,] scrambled up there every time we went on trips. He got it all by himself and enjoyed it.”

Don’t blame the dog for your own stupid actions.

A grown man and the head of a family needs better judgment skills — especially if that man wants to be the president.

What’s the Massachusetts penalty for animal cruelty? “Imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 5 years or imprisonment in the house of correction for not more than 2 1/2 years or by a fine of not more than $2,500, or by both such fine and imprisonment.”

More on Mitt Romney and his dog after the jump.

(Romney family photo)

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It was 1983 and Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor and now presidential candidate, was going on a vacation with his family. The family was driving from Boston to Ontario, and Seamus, the dog, was also coming along for the trip.

Where did Romney put Seamus? Romney strapped a dog carrier with Seamus, an Irish setter, in it, to the roof of the family station wagon for the twelve hour drive. Fortunately, Seamus survived the long trip on the top of the car, although he protested being on top by releasing his bodily fluids on the car.

More on Romney’s situation with his dog after the jump.

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