Florida governor RETURNED the rescue dog he adopted for his 2010 election campaign... AFTER he'd won

Rick Scott adopted rescue dog Reagan during the 2010 campaign for Florida governor

Reporters for Tampa Bay Times discovered dog had not been seen since Scott was inaugurated



Scott eventually said that dog wasn't a good match for his home and gave him back to previous owner

Rick Scott, the governor of Florida, rescued a Labrador retriever during the 2010 GOP campaign, but gave him back after he was inaugurated, it was revealed Monday.



The Republican governor only had the dog, Reagan, for the duration of his gubernatorial campaign, and gave the retriever back after he was sworn into office.

Scott had adopted the retriever shortly after his GOP nomination two years ago. The candidate posted photos of the dog to his Facebook campaign website, asking constituents to help name the newest member of his family.

Adopted: Gov. Rick Scott adopted this Labrador retriever, Reagan, ahead of his GOP nomination in 2010, and gave him back to his previous owner only a year later Scott posted photos of the dog on his Facebook during the campaign and had constituents name the pooch

They decided on Reagan, after the 40th president of the U.S.

Scott was routinely congratulated for adopting a rescue and not buying a purebred, such as President Obama’s dog, Bo, a Portuguese water dog.

However, reporters from the Tampa Bay Times noticed tha t Reagan had not been seen since Scott’s 2011 inauguration.

After some digging, the reporters realized there were no photos of Reagan since before the election. Images of the dog had been removed from Scott's gubernatorial campaign website as well.



Last Wednesday, they reached out to Gov. Schott’s campaign communications director Brian Burgess, who said: ‘Take it in the bank I’m getting you every bit of info I can lay my hands on,’ adding that there would be ‘the potential for a PR nightmare’ if no information was received on the canine.

Not satisfied with the response, the reporters dug further and contacted Melissa Sellers, Scott’s current communications director.

Ms Sellers responded that she was ‘far too busy to find an answer to the question,’ according to the Times.

A spokeswoman for Mrs Scott would only confirm that the family has one dog, Talle, a seven-year-old rescue lab.

Bad fit? Gov. Scott said that Reagan would bark constantly if anyone was carrying something; he was elected Florida's governor in 2010 and sworn in a year later



Stumping: Rick Scott pictured holding a child on the campaign trail in 2010

On Monday, reporters confronted Scott about the case of the vanishing dog. The governor said that Reagan ‘scared the living daylights’ out of everyone living at his Tallahassee mansion and that it wasn’t working out.

The dog, he said, would not stop barking if he saw a person carrying something.

Scott said that because of Reagan’s temperament, he had no choice but to return him to his previous owner.

A s Gawker n otes, each rescue dog comes with its own set of personality quirks, and may not be adjusted for living with certain types of families.

The website ponders if Scott or anyone on his campaign spent time with Reagan before adopting him to find out if he was a good fit for the politician.



A survey released in December by Quinnipiac University revealed that the GOP leader was unpopular and many Republican voters wished for another candidate come the 2014 primary, according t o NBC Miami .

Speaking last week at the GOP’s annual meeting, Scott said that his time in office has proven that he deserves a second term.