NEWS AND VIEWS: Javier Milei, is described as a “madman firebrand” by The Sunday Times this morning and I can see why. He boasted at an election rally last week that he has the best strategists in the world. They are his five cloned dogs. The story of the cloning of his favourite dogs is remarkable in itself but he’s going to employ his dogs to consult on policy matters when he becomes the next president of Argentina which looks likely as he is the current favourite.
Milei is an avowed dog lover. He doesn’t have a wife and he doesn’t have children but he has five English mastiffs which he calls his “four-legged children”. I get that because companion animals are children to their owners. But Javier Milei goes a lot further. The author of his biography published in July titled ‘El Loco’ (The Madman), Juan Luis Gonzalez, said that Javier Milei is “convinced that he can communicate with his dogs, that they can advise him in different areas. The dogs are a sort of cabinet for him, he bounces ideas off them.”
Milei’s first dog, Conan, who was named after the lead (Arnold Schwarzenegger?) in film Conan the Barbarian, was so loved by him that when he died in 2018, he had him cloned not once but five times. It cost $50,000. The cloning company is PerPETuate and it was founded by Ron Gillespie who said that “That dog was everything to him”.
Javier Milei was a rock singer who converted to political prominence. He has a habit of wielding a chainsaw at election rallies. When he was a rock singer and short of money, he lived off one pizza a day and gave his Conan the best possible dog food.
He’s named his five cloned dogs: Conan, Murray, Milton, Robert and Lucas after conservative American economists.
Cloning pets has become quite fashionable since the first animal was cloned, a sheep named Dolly, in 1996. You might remember that Barbra Streisand had two clones made of her small fluffy dog.
Gonzalez mentions that Milei has often spoken in private with friends and other people about his conversations with dogs. He also speaks to God. He believes that his dogs were “important Roman figures” in a former life and that they been reincarnated.
Each provide advice according to their speciality. For example, Conan gives general strategy advice while Milton advises on economic subjects according to Gonzalez.
He added: “Then there is one that can see into the future and learn from mistakes. I think that’s Robert. He’s assigned different tasks to them as though they were a cabinet.”
Milei says that his five dogs have destroyed his home adding that, “In two weeks, they’ve eaten almost 4 armchairs.”
Milei doesn’t deny that he has a dog cabinet but adds that what he does inside his home is his problem.
A veterinarian who speaks to animals, Celia Melamed said she had taught Milei’s sister, Katrina, how to talk to animals. She said that it is “a question of practice. I see the animal and connect with it, I transmit what I am thinking, the animal sees me and does the same. It’s on a subconscious level.”
The people of Argentina don’t seem to mind that they might be electing a person who wishes to consult with dogs on major policy decisions which will affect their lives. They say that they’ve had sensible presidents who failed them so why not try a madman.
He wants to eliminate the central bank and replace Argentina’s peso with the dollar. He agrees with public gun ownership. He hands out photographs of his dogs at campaign events while wielding a chainsaw.
I think I will be kind on the man and say that he doesn’t really consult with his dogs about major policy matters but he uses them as a means to ponder problems. I sense that his dogs help him decide because they facilitate his thinking processes.
Image credit: By Vox España – https://www.flickr.com/photos/voxespana/52417706164/, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=136016533
