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Is there any evidence in that story that the dog was treated cruelly? If there was elsewhere then I'll revise my view.
Putting a dog in a carrier and then tying it to the roof of a car does not strike me (assuming sufficient wind protection which isn't mentioned one way or another in the linked story) as any more cruel than putting the carrier in the bed of a pickup truck, which is legal and done all of the time.
Plus, the social standards for what is "cruel" treatment of pets has changed a lot over the last 25 years. In many placing trimming tails is now cruel but was once common. Declawing cats is now illegal in quite a few places but is still commonly done. In another 25 years if the societal consensus is that declawing is cruel will the people who do it now be ineligible for the presidency on grounds of animal cruelty?
Hell, 25 years ago none of the kids were likely buckled in. Is that a knock against him too? Was he an unfit parent?
No, there isn't necessarily an expiration date on cruelty but there are certainly broad and sometimes rapid shifts in what is considered cruel. (And I haven't yet seen anything that would necessarily fall into that category by a current standard, let alone the standards of 1982.)
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