A neighbour has backed up Rep Lauren Boebert’s denial that the congresswoman fatally shot a pet dog in her hometown of Silt, Colorado.
The bizarre story - the latest in Ms Boebert’s controversial rollercoaster career - exploded on social media over the weekend after Yaritza Mendoza, describing herself as the MAGA Republican’s “next door neighbour,” detailed the alleged incident in a Facebook post.
Ms Mendoza claims the congresswoman shot and killed her two-year-old husky, Omega, in August because the dog was attacking her goats. Records indicate that the 21-year-old does live on a property adjacent to that of the Boeberts and her original Facebook post, accusing the politician of killing the pet and dumping its body in a field “far from the house,” has since been taken down.
After Ms Mendoza wrote her post, another neighbour, Tina Bergonzini, commented on the post that her boyfriend had actually been the one to shoot Omega because the husky was menacing other animals. Both posts, including Bergonzini’s responses, were seen by The Independent prior to being taken down.
Conspiracy theories began to run wild on social media for several reasons.
The timing of Ms Mendoza’s accusation, which dated back to August, raised some eyebrows; it came less than a month before voters go to the polls and one day before Colorado mail ballots began to drop. Then there was the matter of both neighbours’ previous political social media posts.
Ms Mendoza, hailing from a Mexican immigrant family, has shared left-leaning content such as a picture of a uterus and a gun with the caption, “This is more controlled than this,” in reference to legal abortion restrictions versus weapons restrictions. Ms Bergonzini has shared conservative content such as a joke about Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden.
That was enough for the internet to come up with countless political motivations and conspiracies behind the dog drama.
Ms Bergonzini described the attention paid to Omega’s death to The Independent this week as “political fodder and nothing more” and “a sad state of affairs.”
“No one cares about me, my pets or my family. It’s just because Lauren Boebert happens to be my neighbor,” she said over the phone.
Referring to a separate incident where another dog was shot, Ms Bergonzini said that “the animals that were killed by menace dogs didn’t have a political party.”
“The dogs that were shot because they had irresponsible owners didn’t have a political party ... Political affiliation doesnt change the fact that Lauren Boebert didn’t shoot those dogs,” she emphasised. “Politics don’t get to decide reality-- that’s the only reason I spoke up. I’m not friends of hers [Boebert] and I don’t know the situation between her and the dog’s owner. I just wanted the facts to be known-- the death of those dogs and those goats being used to push politics is sad.”
Ms Bergonzini also told The Independent that reports had been filed with authorities.
Garfield County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Walter Stowe told The Independent on Tuesday: “A summons was issued for the shooting, (not to Representative Lauren Boebert as she was not the shooter).
“That case was turned-over to the District Attorney’s Office for further examination and determination of final charges,” he said in an email.
One day after Ms Mendoza’s original post, Ms Boebert addressed the accusations herself on Twitter.
“For the uninformed trolls: The story that was started saying I killed a neighbour’s dog is not true. I’ve never shot or killed any dog, ever,” Ms Boebert tweeted Monday. “A neighbour told the police that he shot two dogs.
“As I understand it, the dogs he shot were wounding and killing livestock in our neighborhood including several of our family’s goats,” she continued. “Again, I had nothing to do with this.”
