Lynne Abraham’s First Campaign Video Stars … Lots of Dogs and Gandhi?

Photo courtesy of the Abraham campaign.

So here’s something peculiar. Lynne Abraham’s first multimedia foray of the 2015 election features her holding a lap dog and going on at some length about the moral depravity of maltreating animals.

Some bizarre backstory: In 2007, a Philadelphia man named William Whiting was awakened at midnight by a phone call. On the other end of the line were some kids demanding he cough up $600 or they would kill his missing dog. Edna (a beagle mix). Whiting readily agreed to pay, and the kid replied. “I want to kill your dog anyway.”

Edna was never found, but a 15-year-old was arrested. Flash forward seven years. Whiting, it seems, remains deeply grateful for then-District Attorney Lynne Abraham’s role in the case. So much so that seems to have cut an amateur video in support of Abraham’s mayoral bid and formed something called “Animal Advocates for Lynne.”

“I could never have realized justice with the help of Lynne Abraham,” Whiting says on the clip. “She understood that a child who  perpetrates a crime of this magnitude is merely practicing for worse things to come.”

Abraham, we learn, is deeply concerned about animals. Like, all of them.

“Part of how a society is judged, in so far as its humanity is concerned, is how it treats its animals,” she says in the video. “Whether it’s the wondrous creatures now facing extinction all over the earth because of habitat destruction, or animals who are poached for their horn, tusks, skin, bile or other parts. Birds smuggled out of the jungles. Wolves senselessly slaughtered. Abused working animals on our farms or on our streets. Or our own dogs and cats. We are seeing the cruelty of mankind to its partners on earth, which are essential to our own survival.”

And here I was just lamenting the lack of clear platforms in this race. Now we know unequivocally that Abraham opposes rhino poaching. One can only assume animal-obsessed former Republican City Councilman Jack Kelly is hastily putting together an Abraham fundraiser at this very moment.

If there’s anything more to take from this — and I’m not entirely sure there is — it would be that Abraham has won over some passionate supporters over her long years in public life. I’ve met some of them, and their devotion to Abraham runs deep. That kind of commitment can go a long way in a mayoral race.

(p.s. Would somebody please flip the iPhone on its side before pressing record next time? Thanks.)