Once-Doomed Dog Runs for Governor of Texas

It’s not a Pixar movie. It’s not a Disney ice musical. This is real life. Woodrow, the 70-pound mutt, is running for governor of Texas. Well, sort of. Part hound, part pit bull, and all lovable pooch, Woodrow is being stumped by his owner, Austin tax attorney and animal advocate Lorri Michel, as a legitimate write-in candidate in a hotly contested November election.

You might say Michel has an agenda, though it’s not a nefarious one. The campaign for Woodrow is “kind of killing two birds with one stone,” she tells the Austin Statesman. It’s a way for the dog lover to speak out on her “frustration with politics” while at the same time raising money for a cause she believes in. Buy a T-shirt at VoteWoodrow.org, and you’ll donate $20 to Austin Pets Alive, a nonprofit volunteer organization dedicated to saving the lives of adoptable dogs and cats that would otherwise be euthanized.

“We have almost $1,000 raised [from] the T-shirts,” Michel tells The Statesman. Not a bad haul for a young campaign, but Woodrow and his owner will have to do better. According to Austin Pets Alive, 6,161 dogs and cats were killed in Austin, Texas shelters last year. That’s just a drop in a bucket compared to countrywide statistics. According to most estimates, 3-4 million animals are euthanized in the US every year. Though that’s a drastic improvement since the ‘70s, when killings were as high as 15 million before the spay/neuter campaign took hold, it’s far from acceptable.

And Woodrow could have been one of the millions. Lorri Michel rescued the abandoned pup from Town Lake Animal Center on Valentines Day 2007. Whether or not Texas voters write Woodrow in (and many, apparently, say they will), this dog’s a winner. He “never met a person he didn’t like,” says Lorri. Woodrow “goes up to everybody, goes on to the next person, just like a politician.” And unlike many politicians, this dog plays no tricks. “Pretty much not a one; he’s pretty useless that way,” Lorri says. Now, that’s a candidate we can get behind.

Photo via Facebook.