Results tagged “pets and politics” from South Bay Pets

And I thought the McCanine and BarkObama bandanas were silly.

Seems now there's a presidential look-alike contest where you can send in photos of your dog who, yes, you think looks like Barack Obama or John McCain.

We are looking for the dogs that look most like our candidates for the "My Dog Looks Like Obama or McCain Photo Contest." Hurry, there is only one week left! Due to such great response, we have extended the deadline for photo submission until Sept. 15.

The "Is Your Dog Presidential?" contest is sponsored by Rover411 in Michigan and there are rules.  Among them: 

Entrants have to agree "that you will not upload or post any photos or other content that is or may be threatening, profane, harassing, defamatory, unlawful, vulgar, obscene, pornographic, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable...."

In other words, be civil, be good. Please. (I was going to add "respectful" to the list, but then wondered if that's even possible when you are, after all, comparing the next leader of the free world to a DOG. Yikes. But you get the idea.)

You can email your photo submission, but you must be 18 years old and register as a member of the web site first. Online voting takes place from Sept. 22 through Oct. 22.

Yeah, it's silly, but kind of nice to see some light-heartedness in this way-too-edgy campaign.

Not sure what they're looking for? Here's the web site's samples:

(now stop laughing!) 

  We've posted before about pets and politics. But now I see there's a web site where your dog can "vote."

Owners (what else is new) will have to foot the bill for their dog's voting privilege -- $9.95, the cost of a red "McCain" or blue "Obama" bandana.

The whole thing is tongue-in-cheek, of course. Cara Orfield began the online business (www.TheDogVote.com) with her husband and two neighbors in Minneapolis, Minn. in the spring.

"It's a satirical site," Orfield said. The site features a Doggie Electoral Map, and the candidate who has the most electoral votes will be declared the Doggie president.

"Right now, Obama's winning in a landslide," she said.

She admitted she would be voting for Obama in November, but that she feels her canine counterpart will be supporting McCain.

"She was a stray, but she worked her way up," Orfield said of her humane society rescue, Stella. 

 Dogs, after all, can be independent types as we all know.

They also tend to be nicer than people. So if you put one of these on your dog in public, you have to PROMISE us you will be civil when the inevitable conversation-starter gets a comment from someone with an opposing view of things.

Don't make your dog break up your fights.

Related posts:pet bowls; Campaign going to the dogs? ;   Vote for (maybe) First Dog;  

Barack and the dog; Barack's poodle?;   VP pets?

HT: Dogster

OK, so now that both VP candidates are in place, it's time to answer the burning question:

Who are their pets?

Actually, I'm still trying to find out.

So far, I've learned that Joe Biden has a cat. But I can't seem to turn up any information abut the nation's potential Second Feline. 

As for Sarah Palin, nothing yet other than the news that her husband (apparently referred to as "First Dude" in Alaska where the missus is the gov) is a past winner of the Iron Dog race -- and broke his arm while competing in the event earlier this year (which he still managed to finish, despite the injury).

Can't tell if the dogs go home with the Palins. But wait a minute. Turns out the Iron Dog race is a snowmobile race! Hmmm, so what's the deal? Dogs? Cats? Cough up the details,  candidates and candidate watchers out there.

I'll keep you posted when I learn more.......

I can't believe this information hasn't been splashed all over the news yet!

This just in: The poodle wins.

You may recall that the American Kennel Club has been asking Americans to cast their vote for what kind of dog the Obama family should get.

Barack, you see, is sans a dog -- a genuine faux paw, as it were, for anyone running for the nation's highest office.

A poll conducted this summer, after all, discovered that pet owners favored John McCain (who has a menagerie of pets) over Obama 42 percent to 37 percent, with dog owners strongly in McCain's corner.

Win or lose, Barack has promised his kids their first family dog. But there were complications. The candidate's two young daughters, for one thing, have allergies. And, should he win in November, any dog living in the White House is going to have to be really, really well behaved. No biting or jumping or barking at visiting dignitaries.

More than 42,000 people cast their vote over the seven-week campaign. The Poodle clinched the nomination after the breed battled it out with the Soft Coated Wheaton Terrier in a race almost as tight as the Clinton and Obama run for the Democratic nomination for president. The poodle won by a (dog) hair, with just a few hundred votes separating the top two contenders.

"Most of our presidents kept purebreds in the White House," said AKC spokesperson Lisa Peterson. "When times get tough -- during a bad economy or when presidential pressures are at their peak -- these dogs serve as personal companions and give much relaxation and laughter to our leaders."

I was rooting for the Wheaton terrier myself, but the AKC says the poodle isn't a bad choice. And not a surprise win, either: "Poodles are currently the eighth most popular breed in the U.S.," Peterson said.

They come in three sizes and are "exceptionally smart and athletic," the AKC says.

But most importantly, there's that pet-owner vote up for grabs.

Related posts: Vote for (maybe) First Dog;  Barack and the dog;  Campaign going to the dogs?;  Presidential pets

Seems a judge has let a Seattle woman off the hook after she registered her dog to vote.

Jane Balogh was charged with making a false statement but entered into a plea agreement last year. A county judge dismissed the charge this week after Balogh showed that she had paid $240 in court costs and completed community service.

Her point? To protest a loophole in the law that she said makes voter registration so easy a nonexistent person could be added to the voter rolls.

California may soon have its own specialized license plate to help fund spay-and-neuter programs.

It's all part of a state law -- AB 1634 (California Healthy Pets Act) -- that's making its way through the state legislature (more on that later this week when the bill is expected to be close to its final form).

As for the license plate, Judie Mancuso of .the AB 1634 campaign says 23 other states already have plates supporting similar spay-and-neuter programs.

And based on how successful California's environmental plates have been -- bringing in $4.5 million from 2006-07 alone -- she said the pets version could really make a difference in the fight against pet overpopulation.

So what will it look like? Don't know yet.

"We're hoping to have a contest and to open it up to the entire state," she said. The plates would include a message and a picture. If 7,500 are pre-sold at the Department of Motor Vehicles, the plates will begin to be issued 9 months later, she said. So that means they could be available about a year from now.

We'll update you with more details later this week on the pending state bill. If you want to find out more about in the meantime, visit the sponsor's web page.

And you can see samples of plates from other states here.

Plates from Florida and Texas are show above. And here's New Mexico's version: 

Let's get those creative ideas going! .

As we all know, politics is a dog-eat-dog world.

So who better than a 7-year-old yellow Labrador retriever for mayor?

At least according to a  Daily Breeze story from Tuesday.

The  Associated Press reports that Willie Bean Roscoe P. Coltrane is running for mayor of Fairhope, Ala.

Some of his supporters say all the politicking, name-dropping and sign-maneuvering in the seven-man Fairhope mayoral race is wearing on them weeks ahead of the Aug. 26 election.

"I think he polishes up the field," said Vince Kilborn, 66, of Fairhope. "We need new blood."

Owner Tress Turner, shown in the photo, decided to enter Willie Bean in a satirical poke at politics.

The dog's campaign began when a mayoral candidate placed a campaign sign on the property that bordered Turner's Coffee Loft shop. When customers started griping, the shop declared itself to be politically netural in the race before deciding to run Willie Bean.

Willie Bean, like all candidates, will likely face some intense scrutiny. But the locals aren't worried.

"He doesn't have any skeletons in his closet," Kilborn said. "He's eaten them all."

 AP Photo/Press-Register, John David Mercer