We’ve talked before about animals who’ve gone above and beyond what you’d normally
expect animals to be capable of like that cat that works for the British government
and a baboon who worked as a (surprisingly good) signalman for a railway company.
In each case special accommodations were made for the animals to better help them do their
duties; but what accommodations are made when an animal has, shall we say, higher aspirations
and enters the world of politics?
As it turns out, not all that many.
This is largely because, in every example of an animal being elected to office we could
find, the position the animal held was ceremonial in nature.
And in perhaps the most famous case, saying the animal is even the honorary mayor is somewhat
of a stretch.
Case in point, you may have heard of Stubbs, a cat who has supposedly been the elected
mayor of a small town in Alaska called Talkeetna since 1997.
There are several variations of Stubbs’ story though the most commonly touted version
is that Stubbs became mayor after residents, dissatisfied with the human candidates running
for office, elected him as a write in candidate.
In actuality Stubbs holds no official position; the whole him-being-mayor-thing is, as one
Alaskan resident bluntly put it, “a PR scam”.
Stubbs was never elected on any write-in ballot because there was never an election in the
first place.
Stubbs isn’t the elected mayor, or even the elected honorary mayor.
He’s a marketing stunt perpetrated by the townsfolk of Talkeetna thanks to a small,
but thriving cottage industry that has sprung up around their most famous feline resident.
Along with some stores selling souvenirs with Stubbs’ face on them, the town has also
seen an uptick in tourism to the tune of 30 or 40 people a day hoping to meet the “mayor”.
In other words, it’s in the best interests of Talkeetna to play up to the notoriety of
being a town with an elected feline mayor.
A similar story is that of Bosco Ramos, a black lab rottweiler mix who was genuinely
elected mayor of an unincorporated census-designated place in California called Sunol in 1981,
serving in the role for 13 years until his death.
How he got into the job in the first place was simply that his owner thought the whole
thing would be funny, so entered him in the race under the platform “Dogs are People
Too” and with campaign promises including, “A bone in every dish, a cat in every tree,
and a fire hydrant on every corner.”
Unlike Stubbs, Bosco was elected and even ran against two human beings, both of whom
he beat in a landslide.
However, his position was described as being “purely ceremonial” in nature.
The same can be said of Duke, a dog who became the honorary mayor of a small town in Minnesota,
winning by 9 votes.
It should be noted here that the town only had 12 residents, meaning I guess he technical
won by a landslide.
Funny enough, the individual who ran against Duke, one Richard Sherbrook, even claims he
voted for the dog, rather than himself.
Again, Duke’s position was ceremonial but, the residents of the town were happy to have
him as mayor, with Sherbrook describing the idea of having a dog as mayor as “pretty
cool”.
Cool or not, since the animals only hold ceremonial positions, there are no official mayoral duties
expected of them, nor are there any salaries, assistants, or similar trappings, though the
animals are seemingly taken much better care of than most of their respective species.
However, just because nobody expects a canine mayor to do anything, it doesn’t mean their
terms in office aren’t gleefully noted by the local populace as if the animal did function
as an actual, official mayor.
Going to back to Bosco for a moment, while he was in office, the doggy mayor would regularly
meet with the citizens of Sunol, taking daily strolls about the town to meet with his constituents.
While serving as mayor, Bosco became something of a celebrity, appearing on TV (earning $2,000
to his owner in one such appearance) and at one point caused an international incident
when Chinese newspapers widely reported on his election as an example of the shortcomings
of democracy and why it should be avoided.
Bosco (literally) took all this in stride and when the Tiananmen square incident happened
in 1989, was invited to join protests organised by students at Berkeley and Stanford in front
of the Chinese embassy as an honored guest.
His owner accepted the offer.
Bosco also led the Halloween parade every year and attended formal events wearing a
doggy tuxedo.
When he wasn’t being formal, Bosco was recognisable due to his habit of wearing a red bandana.
Bosco_the_Dog_Mayor_of_SunolShareShareShareShareShareIt wasn’t all smooth sailing for Bosco though
and his tenure wasn’t without controversy, one of the most infamous being his liaisons
with numerous female dogs while on the clock, resulting in numerous illegitimate pups being
sired.
In addition, Bosco also went missing for a week in 1987, turning up a week later with
a stick in his mouth; he never revealed where he went, so it’s assumed he was enjoying
a raunchy rendezvous with a female dog.
Bosco also frequently got caught being bribed with ice cream and would act aggressively
when people withheld his favourite treat, beef jerky.
After his death in 1994, the people of Sunol paid tribute to Bosco by erecting a bronze
bust of “the world’s first canine mayor”.
Despite his well-known love of formal clothing, the artist responsible for Bosco’s statue
chose to depict him in his everyday attire.
So to sum up, when you hear a story about an animal becoming mayor, chances are the
position is purely ceremonial and the animal has no official duties to speak of so they
don’t need all that much help to carry them out.
And in some cases, the animal in question may not have even been elected at all, just
given their position as something of a publicity stunt.
In the Japanese town of Kinokawa the “station master” for Kishi Station is a female calico
cat called Tama.
Tama was a stray that lived near the station and was regularly fed by an employee there.
When the station became automated in 2007 to cut costs, Tama was “hired” and given
food instead of a salary so that she wouldn’t starve.
News of Tama’s hiring quickly spread and the station saw an increase in traffic as
people travelled to the station just to see her.
Tama is tasked with greeting passengers and even wears a tiny station master hat while
working.