Dr. Oz Reportedly Killed Over 300 Dogs In Studies And Herschel Walker's Son Hates Him, Two Very Online Scandals Disrupt Senate Campaigns

October 4th, 2022 - 2:50 PM EDT by Aidan Walker

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Tweets from Herschel Walker and a parody account for Dr. Oz

Two of this cycle’s most important Senate campaigns have been shaken up by very-online scandals this week. In Pennsylvania, the highly memed race between John Fetterman and Dr. Oz has turned into a discussion of 300 dogs reportedly killed in the course of experiments Oz ran.

Meanwhile, in Georgia where Herschel Walker is trying to unseat Raphael Warnock, Walker’s right-wing TikTok influencer son Christian has published a viral tweet rant accusing his dad of being a deadbeat and a hypocrite on abortion.


First, the 300 dead dogs. According to reporting from Jezebel, between 1989 and 2010, experiments led by Oz at Columbia University killed over 300 dogs. It is common for medical researchers to use and kill live animals as they seek to understand drugs and treatments that could be used to save human lives, but the experiments Oz conducted were found to violate the Animal Welfare Act because researchers did not administer anesthesia to the animals.

A whistleblower within the lab reported egregious treatment of dogs, including grisly details such as putting dead puppies inside of garbage bags with their living littermates. Columbia eventually paid a fine for the animal abuse. Amid his Senate campaign in May 2022, the university also cut all ties with Oz.


The Fetterman campaign seized on this story to drive home a recent series of attacks about Oz’s record as a medical practitioner. Specifically, the Fetterman campaign has focused on his promotion of questionable medicines and pseudo-science on television — a long-standing criticism of Oz that has circulated the web for years.


Oz has yet to reply to the allegations, but parody accounts have stepped into the void in the wake of the viral story.


It appears as if that parody account is riffing off a tweet from the other scandal facing a Republican Senate candidate today: Herschel Walker’s falling-out with his son Christian. The elder Walker tweeted in response to his son’s attacks:


His son, Christian Walker, has publicly condemned his father on Twitter following allegations from The Daily Beast, corroborated by records in his own handwriting, that Herschel Walker (who is running as a pro-life candidate) reportedly paid for an abortion in 2009. Walker shared that his father was absent for much of his life and then violent when he was present.


A number of posters seemed to adore the drama of it all, expressing their reactions throughout the day online.


Some posters also joked about the vehemence and enthusiasm of certain Democrats to attack Walker.


Others on the left-leaning side of the political spectrum expressed discomfort about Christian Walker because he is a "right-wing TikTok influencer" who talks about “family values” and has a podcast called “Uncancellable” (Christian Walker is, presumably, "uncancelable" because he is Black and gay).


As word continued to spread on social media, others sought to support Christian Walker, pointing out that he suffered a trauma at the hands of his father.


Overall, both the 300 dogs story and the Christian Walker revelations are likely bad news for Republicans. Mitch McConnell alluded several weeks ago to problems with candidate quality in the 2022 midterm elections, and many took his remarks to mean that he and others have doubts about Walker and Oz.

So far, you'd be hard-pressed to find many posts defending either candidate online. Some Democrats, however, remained cynical about whether any scandal could actually matter.




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