A town in Vermont, USA has elected both a goat and a dog to serve as its honorary mayor, an unusual step the town says it had to take in order to receive funds to renovate a 32-year-old playground.
It is not the first time the town of Fair Haven has elected an animal as mayor.
First, a goat named Lincoln was elected mayor in 2018, and a dog named Murphee has since taken over the job.
“When I was talked into putting Murfee up to run, I thought, easy-peasy, we’ll get some T-shirts, we’ll go to the Spring Fling, we’ll sell some shirts and raise some money,” the Cavalier King Charles spaniel’s owner, Linda Barker, told the Rutland Herald.
“And then COVID struck and it was like … there go all the easy plans,” she said, noting they’ve since begun selling face masks instead.
The town needed $100,000 to pay for the playground’s renovations. Fundraisers led by the goat and the dog made $30,000, and the town has put forward another $20,000 toward the project.
Now they have gotten most of their contributions due to their animal mayors, the town plans to start construction for the project in May.
