A finalist in the multimillion-dollar race for New York City mayor dropped out over a series of extremely vulgar and threatening “negative comments.”
Oliva Caputo, 28, entered her two-year-old Shih Tzu Enzo in the Dog Mayor race in New York City hoping to get her beloved pup in his first competition, but only one day before the race. final vote, decided to withdraw it. outside.
Flags were raised Saturday night when Caputo discovered what he described as something like a “public Telegram group,” a crypto community that influenced voters to choose the winner: Enzo’s competition, Bertram the Pomeranian.
On Sunday, he took to Enzo’s Instagram, which has over 92,000 followers, and announced that he was “retiring” due to the crypto group that “doesn’t care about the dog mayor of New York” with “his worthless shitcoin” . .’
But that wasn’t the only reason he decided to remove him, as he described many “threats of violence towards Enzo” following Bert Crypto’s “election fraud” scheme.
One user in the crypto group’s shady message said he wanted to “smash this damn Enzo,” according to a screenshot Caputo shared with DailyMail.com.
Oliva Caputo, 28, pulled her beloved two-year-old Shih Tzu Enzo out of the race for New York’s mayoral dog after discovering a shady crypto community that influenced voters to elect her opponent Bertram the Pomeranian .
Shortly after retiring and presenting him to the head of the organization, Caputo and Enzo began receiving extremely harsh threats online.
“Stupid dog, kill him black,” wrote another.
Caputo, who also struggles with his mental health, told DailyMail.com that thanks to Enzo, his condition has improved incredibly.
Once she saw the horrible messages directed at him and even attacking her, she knew she had to talk about it.
The dog’s mother decided to contact Stephen Calabria, the founder of NYC Dog Mayor, and shared some of the threats she and Enzo were receiving, but he denied it was happening, Caputo said.
In a statement to DailyMail.com regarding Caputo’s claims, Calabria wrote: “We were disappointed that New York City’s Honorary Dog Mayor competition, a fun, inclusive and entertaining project to help dogs, encountered interference from , of all things, the crypto world.
‘Despite some claims in print, NYC Dog Mayor’s Choice has no corporate or personal affiliations, and our attorneys have sent letters to a crypto company in question demanding that they not infringe our trademark or interfere with our competition.
“We are reaching out to the dogs involved in the competition to remind them that they are all good dogs.”
In addition to his statement, Calabria also responded to mentions of such threats on Instagram, saying, ‘Enzo received literally zero threats, as far as we know,’ and asked for screenshots to be sent to him as proof.
“So now there are a lot of people on the Internet who think I’m a liar because he’s implying that I’m a liar, which I think is really disgusting.” Caputo said.
“I don’t know why you would rather imply that I am a liar than make a public statement to condemn the hateful messages I have been receiving.”
She explained that she began sending him evidence of the threats, but soon became frustrated doing so and wondered why he couldn’t just help protect her and her dog.
One of her friends even contacted Calabria about the hate messages and, according to Caputo, said those comments were not “sent by anyone affiliated with us.”
In an Instagram post, Calabria said he is committed to holding a “fun, inclusive and negativity-free election.”
“We do not tolerate negativity directed towards anyone, canine or human, and we do not support anyone who attempts to buy or pay for votes,” he added.
“That said, we can’t moderate all conversations on the internet (and) we can’t control whether people in the global crypto market organize for a canine mayoral candidate.”
The dog mom decided to contact Stephen Calabria (center), the founder of NYC Dog Mayor, and shared some of the threats she and Enzo were receiving, but he denied it was happening, Caputo said.
Caputo told DailyMail.com that throughout the entire ordeal, Calabria blocked and unblocked her several times on social media.
He added that he even blocked some of Enzo’s loyal followers.
“I can’t even tell you how many of Enzo’s followers have told me they were blocked, but there are quite a few and you know they are being blocked for calling him out for his corruption,” he said.
Even though the crypto group is confident Bertman will beat Enzo, said the dog’s owner, Kathy Grayson. PHOTO 11 She had no idea what was going on.
Caputo said she and Enzo had been preparing for the race since July, and that she’s “really been working her butt off to promote her platform.”
She told DailyMail.com that she is beyond disappointed with how this whole ordeal was handled and that she will never enter Enzo in this race again.
Now, he plans to keep Enzo away from any competition after this debacle, including the mayoral dog race.
‘It’s discouraging. It’s, you know, beyond disappointing. I just can’t believe it has turned into this.
“And you know other people, including him, you know, like everyone says in their group, it’s not so serious and relax,” he added.
While agreeing that this is not a “life-changing event,” Caputo said Calabria “has led to it being anything but.”
On November 11, Bertman will face his new opponent Simon, whose owner told the outlet that he “doesn’t care if he loses to Crypto Bros next week.”