Vance targeted by false 'rent-a-dog' claims

"HOLY CRAP: How weird is it #1: @JDVANCEhas a 'rent-a-dog'. How weird is it #2: @JDVance admits its a 'rent-a-dog' and the dog is to '... make me seem like I'm a dog fan...'" says a September 21, 2024 X post from the liberal American Muckrakers political action committee.

Accompanying the post is an 11-second clip of an interview with Carlson in which Vance briefly introduces his German Shepherd.

"He's actually a 'rent-a-dog' that was given to me by the campaign to make me seem like I'm a dog fan," Vance says in the video.

Carlson responds: "How weird. You're weird."

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Screenshot from X taken September 25, 2024

The same claim has circulated elsewhere on X, Threads, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube and other websites.

Carlson posted the original video September 18 on YouTube as part of an online show he launched after departing Fox News in April 2023 (archived here).

At the start of the interview, Carlson asks Vance about Atlas, who is walking out of the frame. Vance says he has seen claims online that he rents the dog to accompany him at public appearances.  

"And it's actually hilarious to hear these lefties to be like, 'Oh, that dog, that's totally not his dog,'" Vance says.

"And, of course, we got him when he was like an eight-week-old puppy."

Carlson's network later posted a TikTok video with the caption: "JD Vance introduces us to his supposed 'rent-a-dog' as the Left likes to claim" (archived here).

A Vance spokesman confirmed in a September 25 email that "the Vance family has had Atlas for the entirety of 2024 since he was a puppy."

The campaign shared a photo whose metadata indicates it was taken January 17 near the US Capitol in Washington, where Vance's office is located (archived here). 

Atlas has been photographed several times since then.

The New York Post published a story in August with numerous pictures of the dog. Atlas has appeared alongside Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, at campaign stops in states such as Wisconsin (archived here and here).

AFP previously fact-checked a similar claim that Vance's Democratic counterpart, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, is lying about owning his dog.

AFP has debunked other misinformation about the 2024 US election here.