Leading New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang sparked social media outrage following a bizarre post on National Pet Day about a dog he gave away because one of his children developed an allergy to it.
“On #NationalPetsDay celebrating our dog Grizzly who we raised as a puppy but had to give away because one of our boys became allergic to him. Miss you Grizz! #dogsforyang,” the former presidential candidate posted on Twitter on Sunday along with two pictures of the small white pup.
He followed it up with another tweet accompanying a video of his pet pooch crying for his attention. “He still remembers daddy,” wrote the American entrepreneur in the text accompanying the video.
The tweets did not go down well with some social media users who were baffled about his decision to share this story.
“You’re so f***ing weird,” said American writer and poet Saeed Jones.
“Maybe just sit this one out if this is the only pet story you have,” said a user.
“He’s like some kind of genius at always just missing the mark,” wrote journalist Lauren Wolfe.
“Dude...how did you screw up a dog post? It’s actually impressive,” wrote another user.
“When people ask me why any candidate needs messaging experts, I’m just gonna point them to this tweet,” said another.
Mr Yang is no stranger to controversy. Earlier on Sunday, he faced backlash for his demand for a crackdown on unlicensed street vendors.
“You know what I hear over and over again - that NYC is not enforcing rules against unlicensed street vendors. I’m for increasing licenses but we should do more for the retailers who are paying rent and trying to survive,” he had tweeted adding that he would “like to bring more unlicensed vendors into the legal market.
American writer Roxane Gay slammed Mr Yang for his take, asking him to drop out of the race. “Andrew, this is a baffling thing to think and then say so loudly. With all of what’s going on in NYC you want to talk about street vendors in such an unsupportive way? And enforcing bureaucratic nonsense? Listen to better people or drop out of the race,” she wrote.
