TSR Shady Species: Unlike America, a small town in Kentucky has found out who its leader will be and it isn’t human. Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, has a new mayor–a 6-month old French bulldog named Wilbur.
While some might argue that a dog might be more suitable than some humans to run a city, the gag is, the small town of Rabbit Hash has been doing this!
“Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, has never had an actual person or human as a mayor,” Amy Noland, Wilbur’s human, told NBC News.
She said the bizarre tradition emerged in the late 1990s.
“There was a man named Don Claire who thought it would be a great idea to elect some type of animal — not necessarily a canine — as mayor of town, as a fundraising event for the historical society,” Noland explained.
I guess it’s the kind of thing that only happens in a significantly smaller town. Rabbit Hash has just under 500 people and in addition to this animal-loving tradition, the town is also on the National Register of Historic Places for its very old general store, which was built in 1831.
Noland said the people of their community are all about the puppies and she herself has a whole gang of animals under her roof.
But she described Lil’ Wilbur, whom she adopted four months ago, as an “anomaly” because he’s an American Kennel Club registered purebred dog.
“He was just so cute,” Noland explained.
Wilbur isn’t the first dog mayor of Rabbit Hash and he likely won’t be the last. There have been five dog mayors since the first, Goofy, and the last mayor was a pit bull named Brynn who reigned over the town from 2016 to 2020.
“Although it’s not political at all, it always coincides with the presidential election,” Noland said.
She said Wilbur is handling the stress of the new job just fine: “He’s done a lot of interviews locally, he’s had a lot of pets, a lot of belly scratches and a lot of ear rubs.”
In other words, y’all mayor might be more qualified but are they as cute as Wilbur is the real question.
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