Dog and goat serving as mayor raise money for a playground

A goat and a dog who were each elected mayor have helped raise money to renovate a Vermont community playground.The oddball idea of pet mayor elections to raise money to rehabilitate the playground and to help get local kids civically involved came from a local town manager.In 2018, Fair Haven residents elected Lincoln the goat as its honorary mayor.

A goat and a dog who were each elected mayor have helped raise money to renovate a Vermont community playground.

The oddball idea of pet mayor elections to raise money to rehabilitate the playground and to help get local kids civically involved came from a local town manager.

In 2018, Fair Haven residents elected Lincoln the goat as its honorary mayor. Lincoln helped raise about USD 10,000 while the current mayor, Murfee, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, has raised USD 20,000, Town Manager Joe Gunter told the Rutland Herald. The town chipped in another USD 20,000.

Murfee's owner, Linda Barker, said that when she was talked into having Murfee get involved in politics, she thought it would be easy to raise money through T-shirts. Then the pandemic struck.

So she shifted to masks. She's made nearly 1,000 of them, and will be making another round of them for Valentine's Day. She raised more than USD 5,000 from the masks and a similar amount from basket raffles.

The town was also recently awarded a USD 50,000 grant from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, she said.

Ironically, the honorary mayor is not welcome on the playground. Barker said there's a ''no dogs allowed'' sign.

"Murfee is going to take that up with the town," Barker said Sunday with a chuckle. "He's going to contest that."

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)