“He Rolled Over with Excitement!”: Kentucky Town Elects Dog as Mayor

While most Americans are eagerly awaiting who will be the next President of the United States, one town in Kentucky has decided that its mayor will now be a French Bulldog named Wilbur.

The small town of Rabbit Hash in Kentucky had 17 other candidates who eyed becoming mayor, including Jack Rabbit, a Beagle, and a donkey named Higgins. There was even a rooster campaigning for the office, according to spokesperson and handler of Wilbur, Amy Noland.

This sounds like an onion piece but in fact, its real. Jack Rabbit the Beagle, and Poppy the golden retriever came in second and third, according to the town’s historical society, the Rabbit Hash Historical Society.

“The town was always filled with dogs so it was the natural solution and it took away all of the human aspects of politics, which was important to the town,” said Wilbur’s spokesperson and handler, Amy Noland.

If that’s not astonishing enough, Wilbur was elected mayor in November 2020 with 13,143 votes out of a total of 22,985 (the highest winning rate ever.) Rabbit Hash itself also had its biggest voting turn out in its history for its election.

After Wilbur’s win, his owner took to social media to thank his supporters.

“I am humbled and beyond thankful for all of the support from far away and right here at home,” he wrote on Facebook.

When Fox News asked Nolan how Wilbur took the news of his victory, Noland replied, “He rolled over with excitement!”

Non-human candidacies are usually meant as a means of casting a vote of protest. Over the years there have been various animal candidates including cats but Rabbit Hash is different. The small town has historically only had mostly dog mayors. The first elected mayor in Rabbit Hash’s history was an adopted dog named Goofy Borneman-Calhoun, who was sworn into office in 1998.

Wilbur precedes his predecessor Brynneth “Brynn” Pawltro, who was himself a dog specifically a pit bull. The town even has its own political scandal, in 2004, Junior Cochran, a black Labrador, assumed office. Junior later came under the scrutiny of the Northern Kentucky Health Department and was banned from entering the town’s General Store due to complaints. According to a WXIX-TV report, on March 13, 2008, the dog’s owner petitioned for an exemption for the “mayor.” On May 30, 2008, WXIX-TV reported that Junior had died in office at the age of 15.

Lets hope that Wilbur has a much better term than his canine com-padres before him.