Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer is defending his comment which compared government assistance programs to "feeding stray animals."

Bauer made the comparison during a town hall meeting Friday in Fountain Inn. He was saying poor parents of students who eat free or reduced-price meals in school cafeterias should be required to attend parent-teacher conferences, or the students should go without.

"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed," Bauer said, according to the Greenville News. "You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better."

The gubernatorial candidate said the government can't afford to keep giving money away without requiring something in return. He said poor people should lose their benefits if they don't pass drug tests, and parents should be required to be more active in their children's education.