In 2019, a 3-year-old Nubian goat named Lincoln was officially inaugurated as the first mayor of Fair Haven, Vermont. And then she pooped. As Town Manager Joe Gunter explained at the time, "Originally we did it as a fundraiser to replace the playground behind the school, but it really turned into a small civic lesson for the children. 'Come out and vote. Get involved in the town.'"

But that election only guaranteed a one-year term, and Lincoln only narrowly defeated Sammy, a K-9 cop. And now Sammy's taking another shot at the top seat in town. If elected, Sammy has promised to release her tax returns and recuse herself from all police business that might come before the town to avoid any conflicts of interest, according to her representative, Police Chief Bill Humphries. Humphries has also tried to soothe the concerns of Fair Haven's feline population, which has a long history of hostile relations with canine police officers.

In response to Sammy's campaign, Lincoln has released a budget proposal that includes $0 spending on grain, $0 spending on hay, and a promise that there will be no tax increases to fund the playground that formed the foundation of her historic run for the town's inaugural mayorship.

Fair Haven will hold the contentious election at their Town Meeting on March 3, 2020. And while I don't want to be partisan, I think it's only fair to point out that one candidate is literally a cop, and the other one is literally the GOAT, so I think we all know who deserves to be in charge. Read the rest

Jake the police dog was screening passengers boarding the Norwegian Epic cruise ship for the Holy Ship! EDM festival on the ocean. Jake alerted his police officer companion that he smelled something suspicious and then became visibly sick.

"(The dog) started having some problems with balance and had some type of seizure incident of some sort, was showing effects of having inhaled some substance," Tod Goodyear, a Sheriff's Office spokesman, told WFTV. "They administered the Narcan and got (the dog) to the vet as quick as they could."

They gave him Narcan as a precaution as they didn't know what caused the illness.

Meanwhile, police searched the passenger and found "a sedative and other prescription drugs, as well as an amphetamine and Ecstasy," according to WFLA.

It isn't clear what Jake ingested, when, or how. Most importantly though, Jake is expected to make a full recovery. Read the rest

Jary, a police dog in South Dakota, puts on quite a performance as he tries out a brand new set of snow boots. Just a little practice and he'll be running with the best of them.

Via AP, who found this from a post by The Rapid City Police Department Read the rest

While police dogs are typically treated well by their handlers, they don't have the best life a doggo could imagine. While much of their training is framed as play and through task/reward, stuff pups live for, they're all too often exposed to loud, stressful situations and violence. The Spanish city of Madrid has 22 dogs serving on its police force. While nothing can be done to keep their dogs away from the stresses of police work, the city is going through a whole lot of trouble to ensure that their downtime will be as enjoyable as possible.

According to The Guardian, the city of Madrid has taken the time to figure out how to de-stress their police dogs at the end of their shift and has spent three months modifying their kennels to increase the animals' quality of life.

At the end of a long day of police work, the dogs can now return home to heated beds, toys and a play area. What's more, all of the dogs will be exposed to music therapy in order to bring down their stress levels:

The type of music and the amount to which they are exposed will depend on what tasks to which the dogs are assigned. While all the dogs are classified as detectors, each is specialized in a particular field, such as detecting drugs, explosives and counterfeit money, while some are dedicated to rescue operations.

No matter what classification the doggos are assigned for the work that they do, they share one thing in common: heavy metal music is off-limits. Read the rest