WASHINGTON — Mr. President-elect, the votes are in: American pet owners prefer a mutt as the White House dog.
By more than a 2-1 margin, pet owners say the Obamas should choose a mutt for their first dog over a purebred, according to an Associated Press-Petside.com poll released Wednesday.
People who don’t have pets mostly don’t care either way.
“Let’s get philosophical about it: We’re kind of a country of mutts,” said Steve Minor, 54, of Knightdale, N.C.
“I think he’d set an example if he got a dog from a shelter that needed a home,” Minor said.
Obama said over the weekend that the family is choosing between two breeds: a Labradoodle (a cross between a poodle and a Labrador) and a Portuguese water dog, the kind owned by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
Obama has indicated that the family likes the idea of rescuing a shelter dog, but 10-year-old Malia is allergic and most shelter dogs are, as the president-elect put it, “mutts like me.” Both the Labradoodle and Portuguese water dog shed less than other breeds.
The survey, conducted by GfK, also found more than half of pet owners and 43 percent of all Americans said it was important to them that the Obamas adopt their dog from an animal shelter.
Michelle Zabrucki, of Tampa, Fla., considers buying a purebred dog akin to wearing $200 jeans or carrying the latest designer bag.
“The strays are just as wonderful and just as loving and they don’t cost $800 apiece,” she said.
Pet owners showed a stronger preference for mutts than did all adults, 33 percent of whom said they’d prefer a mutt. Twenty-three percent of all adults preferred a purebred and 38 percent said it didn’t matter. About six in 10 Americans own pets.
Past presidential pooches have included many purebreds, including incumbent Scottish terriers Barney and Miss Beazley.
But Obama’s hero, Abraham Lincoln, had a mixed-breed dog named Fido who didn’t make the trip to the White House. Lyndon B. Johnson also had a mutt, Yuki, named for the Japanese word for snow.
“Johnson’s daughter Luci found the dog at a gas station in Texas on Thanksgiving Day in 1966. Yuki became Johnson’s favorite pet,” said Cathy Trost, exhibits chief at the Newseum, which has an exhibit on first dogs.
But many Americans figure there are bigger issues for Obama to worry about. Pat Schoff, 55, of Baltimore, has a miniature pinscher herself but says different choices work for different people.
“I guess in all reality, a dog’s a dog,” she said.
Pedigree or pound?
See the poll results at tinyurl.com/9l5exn or surveys.ap.org.
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