Dog-meat eating claim sparks Twitter dispute between Obama, Romney camps

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'Dogfight' between Obama, Romney camps

Campaigns exchange tweets over treatment of canines

The battle between the Obama and Romney campaigns about whose candidate is the most understanding toward the unemployed, women voters and more has turned to another bloc -- dog-lovers.

The latest round centers on an old claim by President Obama that, as a child, he tried dog meat. The Daily Caller ignited the exchange on Twitter with a blog post Tuesday, referring to the excerpt from the president’s best-selling memoir “Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.” In it, Obama talks about growing up in Indonesia and being “introduced to dog meat” and other exotic foods like grasshopper.

The post follows Democrats pouncing on Mitt Romney in January after he acknowledged the family dog, Seamus, made a vacation trip from Boston to Canada in a kennel carrier atop the car roof.

Obama adviser David Axelrod promptly tweeted a photo of Obama sitting in a car beside first family dog Bo.

“How loving owners transport their dogs,” Alexrod tweeted along with the picture.

Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom tried to turn the Axelrod Tweet to his advantage after the Daily Caller blog -- using the Obama-Bo picture in a Tweet with the message: “In hindsight, a chilling photo.”

Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt tweeted in response: “What’s the next attack@EricFerhn and the (Republican National Committee) will surface on a 6-10 year old?”