The other day, I was delusionally bored, looking for a feature, and started browsing the hashtag #election2016 on Instagram. After post after post of the general talking head, trendy stuff, I ran into one of an adorable black and white border collie by the name of Shelby, requesting “Vote Shelby. Protect our border (collies).” In my late night delirium, and election cynicism, I found this irresistibly cute, hilarious, and shockingly poignant to the ridiculousness that radiates from this election.
As is fitting, as any responsible presidential candidate would, you’d naturally have some propaganda as well. In this case, a piece of hers contained a screenshot of an article that was published in Time, titled, “Every Dog Has Its Day: Occupy Denver Elects Canine Leader.” Then I remembered, “Didn’t Occupy not elect anything? Wasn’t that kind of the point?”
What followed was the discovery of an amazing tale of how, 5 years ago, Shelby the dog contradicted an international movement by becoming -- from what I can tell -- the first, and only democratically elected leader of any Occupy movement across the globe, and how she isn’t the only nominated, and elected animal leader in history.
Let’s go back to October 2011. The world is in ideological, and economic turmoil. Still suffering from the fallout of the 2008 Great Recession, thousands of people from 951 cities, across 82 countries, and over 600 communities in the United States, had taken to the streets to protest how large, multinational corporations -- more specifically financial institutions -- perpetuated disparity between the different economic classes.
However, one of the main challenges facing the Occupy movement was a perceived inability to concentrate the meaning of their movement into a cohesive message. Some pundits, such as Naomi Wolf, discredited this though, saying that Occupy does have a clear objective, which was to remove the corrupting influence of money in politics. Other members of the movement, such as Kalle Lasn of AdBusters reiterated something similar: increase bank regulations, restrict high frequency trading, prosecute the entities responsible for the Great Recession, and form a Presidential committee whose goal would be to investigate corruption in politics.
Yet the criticism of a lack of message remained, with some protesters, such as David Graeber -- a popular anarchist activist, and anthropologist from London -- arguing that to have a clear mission would justify the power structures that lead to the problem in the first place. And it is this lack of power structure, and perplexedly defined mission that may be why, during the entirety of the global movement, not a single leader was elected democratically to represent the voice of the movement to the establishment… except for one.
Enter P.J. Jentsch, a filmmaker out of Boulder, Colorado, who made his way down to the Occupy Denver protests to show his support for the movement, but to also work on a film of his. Along, with him, and his crew, he also brought his 3 year old border collie mix, Shelby, who Jentsch says was raised as a person, and is on a “strict protest against leashes.” And like any person, she was therefore able to come and go as she pleases, wandering around Denver’s Civic Center Park, unfazed and unleashed, giving and receiving love to and from disgruntled activists for weeks.
And then it happened.
According to Westword Magazine, during one of Occupy Denver’s General Assembly meetings, Michael Moore, an American film-maker, decided to barge into the center of the congregation with a security detail and a bullhorn, ignoring the decorum of the assembly, and essentially started acting as the leader of a wholly leaderless movement. This irked many members of the congregation, who decided, in an act of protest, to nominate a four legged iconoclast as the official leader of Occupy Denver.
According to Jentsch, "She spent a few weeks getting to know everybody here, so when Al [Nesby, a popular activist] nominated her, everybody knew who she was and liked her," which allowed her to win in a landslide.
According to the L.A. Times, this symbolic gesture also humorously fulfilled Occupy Denver’s need to elect a leader, which was requested by Denver Mayor Michael Hancock in an effort to effectively communicate with the movement. Regardless of the fact that Shelby most likely did not understand, or could communicate the monumental message that fell onto her furry shoulders, the demand was nevertheless fulfilled, and Shelby, a 3 year old adopted border collie mix, became the first elected leader of any Occupy movement on the planet; defying the tradition of over 900 cities across the planet.
In a statement to the press, Nesby stated, "Shelby has more human traits than any corporation: She can bleed, she can breed, and she can show emotion. If this is the way the corporate world chooses to do business, let's apply the same rule."
Occupy Denver’s website also released a statement saying, “Shelby exhibits heart, warmth and an appreciation for the group over personal ambition that Occupy Denver members feel are sorely lacking in the leaders some of them have voted for.”
Coincidentally, she was also elected on November 5th, 2011, which happens to be Guy Fawkes Day, whose face has been a symbol of the movement since the start. Whether that was intentional, or not, is up in the air.
This had me wondering, “Could you actually elect a dog as President?” Simple answer? No. No, you cannot. Yet, the FEC does allow anyone (or anything) to register as President by filling out FEC Form 2. According to the New York Daily News, you may even run your cat, your goldfish, or in this case, your dog for President. However, becoming elected requires you to be at least 35 years old, and a natural born citizen of the United States, making a 8 year old border collie ineligible... unless you can argue dog years in court. This hasn’t stopped her from filing though, as you can see here.
However, all over the world, there have been plenty of animals who have not only been nominated, but won elections. The first verifiable one was Boston Curtis, a mule. He won a decisive victory in the town of Multon, Washington, in 1938. Others include Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, who have elected multiple dogs, including Junior, a black lab, and Lucky, a collie mix.
There have even been long running political dynasties, such as in Lajitas, Texas from 1986 to 2011, where they elected both father and son, Clay Henry Sr, and Clay Henry, Jr., who were both goats. And not only were they goats, they were goats who were famous for drinking more beer than most grown men could handle. However, like in all power families, one usually gets jealous, and in the most serendipitously cynical way imaginable, during Clay Sr.’s reign of intoxication, Clay Jr. usurped his throne by allegedly killing senior in a brawl over must what have been a very stunning female goat.
So, there you have it folks. Dog gets elected leader of a movement, dog goes on power trip and runs for President, and then I realize she’s not the only animal to run, let alone be elected. It’s a crazy, unpredictable world we live in, and that may make you wonder: in this election cycle, has America gone to the dogs?” Well, truth is, it may just. It may just.