campaign and draw votes away from the Liberals. The allegations were denied by the Tories. The same day, Eves attacked Dalton McGuinty for voting against a bill to protect taxpayers from increased taxes, when it turns out McGuinty in fact voted for that bill. The "Kitten-eater" controversy On September 12, the Eves campaign issued a news release that called Dalton McGuinty an "evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet". The words appeared at the end of the news release. Eves said the epithet was meant as a joke, and acknowledged the words were "over the top", but refused to apologize. There is speculation the epithet was an obscure reference to an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which McGuinty stated, in a blog post that week, he enjoys watching. In response, McGuinty said his campaign will not be "sidetracked" by the incident. Despite efforts by two Conservative spies at a Liberal campaign event to shoo away a white kitten, members of the media managed to take photographs of McGuinty holding the kitten, a moment some described as a defining moment of the campaign. Liberal Party officials made T-shirts that were emblazoned with the words "Call Me An Evil Reptilian Kitten Eater ... But I Want Change". The T-shirts were handed out to party supporters at a rally held that same night. Later weeks The Conservatives spent the third week on the defensive and dropping in the polls, unable to recover from the disasters of the second week and fresh new attacks. The Liberals produced documents from the Walkerton Inquiry showing that individual Conservative MPPs were warned about risks to human health and safety resulting from cuts to the Environment Ministry budget. An attack on Dalton McGuinty saying he needed "professional help" forced an apology from the Conservatives to people with mental illness. Tory MPP John O'Toole said the Tory negative campaign was a mistake, putting Eves on the defensive once again. A leaked memo was used by the opposition to accuse the government of threatening public sector workers into not telling the truth at a public inquiry into the government's handling of the SARS crisis. Eves ended the week with another event that backfired, brandishing barbed wire and a get out of jail free card to attack the Liberals as soft on crime. Reporters spent more time focused on Eves' first use of props in the election than on his message.