Former President Donald Trump’s political playbook demands never caving in to critics, even if there is a winning alternative narrative.
In this year’s election, Dr. Mehmet Oz used that playbook, and at least on one issue (the deaths of 300 dogs in medical experiments), his foes believe it helped to end his brief political aspirations.
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According to reports, Oz was part of a group at the University of Columbia that, from 1989 to 2010, conducted research tests that led to the death of hundreds of animals, including some 300 dogs.
They were met with Animal Welfare Act violations and a fine to Columbia University for the abuses.
Oz didn’t take part in the tests conducted by a group he oversaw, and his campaign made that point.
But at least three groups, Animal Wellness Action, Senate Majority PAC, and the Lincoln Project, spent over $3 million on ads criticizing Oz over the deaths.
Wayne Pacelle, the president of Animal Wellness Action, told Secrets that the goal was less to attack Oz than getting him to say the tests were wrong and that he now favors a new bipartisan approach before Congress that gets away from animal testing.
“I wanted Dr. Oz to say that was a closed chapter and to support the policy effort to phase down animal testing,” said Pacelle, who had convinced others to back the legislation before the Senate. He said he hoped Oz would react by agreeing to look at the Senate bill. “A strong conservative, Dr. Rand Paul, was leading the effort in the Senate, and that should have signaled Dr. Oz’s political direction,” he added.
Pacelle even suggested the solution in a press release before pulling the trigger on his ad. “Since news of these animal tests resurfaced during the campaign, Dr. Oz has provided no assurances that he’d be an active proponent of animal welfare in the Senate or that he now recognizes that these past uses of animals were morally and scientifically problematic,” he said.
But when presented with reports the ads would run in Pennsylvania TV markets, Oz did not back down and instead took the standard route and issued denials that he abused animals. “Dr. Mehmet Oz never abused any animals and suggesting otherwise is a pathetic, ridiculous, and false attack,” said his campaign.
That did not scare off the groups, and Pacelle said that he felt “an obligation” to step up his efforts and ran his ad.
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Even though the spending budgets weren’t big, he believes that the images of sad and dying dogs had an impact and undermined Oz’s campaign. “These images burn in,” he said.
Pacelle, a veteran of multiple Washington battles, said that defiance can often be the wrong approach in campaigns. But, he said, agreeing to look at alternatives or changing one’s mind “is not in the political playbook and it wasn’t in Oz’s playbook.”
Oz lost by an unexpectedly large margin of 4 percentage points to Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who has struggled to speak due to a stroke. In his campaign, Fetterman pledged strong support for the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 and other national animal welfare policies, including a ban on the slaughter of horses for human consumption and a crackdown on puppy mills.
