There’s zero truth to the claim. And yet, there’s a mountain of evidence — in the last week, month, year and half-century — that it’s Republicans who pose the gravest threat to America’s animals.

Most recently, several former colleagues of Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation and the man behind Project 2025, told The Guardian that Roberts once said he’d killed a neighbor’s dog with a shovel.

Kenneth Hammond, who worked with Roberts in the history department at New Mexico State University in 2004, was one of three colleagues who shared the story with the outlet, which published its report on Tuesday.

“My recollection of his account was that he was discussing in the hallway with various members of the faculty, including me, that a neighbor’s dog had been barking pretty relentlessly and was, you know, keeping the baby and probably the parents awake and that he kind of lost it and took a shovel and killed the dog,” Hammond said.

If he indeed killed the dog, Roberts would actually be in good company. Numerous other Republicans (and their supporters) have harmed or threatened — whether directly or indirectly — America’s animals in recent history, some fatally.