Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is Now Denying That He Ever Barbequed and Ate a Dog

If you have somehow missed all the ways that we are living in a deranged political reality, this story should make that clear. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is currently running for president and who polling suggests may receive millions of votes, is now denying that he ever ate a dog.

Even crazier, the allegation that he ate a dog is not the only upsetting allegation in the story. Here's what we know about his denial and about why he had to issue it to begin with.

In a new, lengthy story in Vanity Fair, a reporter uncovered that Kennedy sent a photo to a friend while traveling in Asia in 2023. In the image, Kennedy looks to be preparing to take a bite out of what looks like a barbecued dog. Vanity Fair even had a veterinarian confirm that the photo was of a dog, citing its distinctive 13th floating rib.

Kennedy joked that he might like a restaurant in Korea that served dog, and metadata suggests that the photo was taken in 2010, the same year he was diagnosed with actual brain worms (ugh). The person who received the photo reportedly found it insensitive for both making fun of animal cruelty and for racism against Korean culture, which might be part of the reason the photo came to light.

In an appearance on CUOMO, Kennedy denied having ever eaten dog.

“I am a very adventurous eater … I’ll eat virtually anything,” the 70-year-old presidential hopeful said after denying that he'd eaten it. “There’s two things I wouldn’t eat — well, three. I wouldn’t eat a human, I wouldn’t eat a monkey, and I wouldn’t eat a dog. I think I’d eat anything else, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do those things, so it is a goat and you are what you eat."

In addition to evidence that Kennedy might have eaten a dog on one or even multiple occasions, the article also told the story of a woman who said she had been groped by Kennedy when she was working for his family in the 1990s.

While he was married to his second wife, Mary Richardson, the article alleges that Kennedy often sent photos of nude women to his friends.

The friends assumed that Kennedy had taken the images but were unsure if the women in them "had consented to having their genitalia photographed, let alone shared with other people.”

In telling the story of Eliza Cooney, who worked for the family as a babysitter, the article claims that in 1998, Kennedy rubbed his hand up and down her leg during a meeting and once prompted her to lotion his back while shirtless.

While Kennedy has denied the dog allegations, he has not denied the others. Instead, he said that he had a "very, very rambunctious youth."