(Courtesy of Salt Lake County Animal Services) Salt Lake County PAWlitical candidate Drake

(Courtesy of Salt Lake County Animal Services) Salt Lake County PAWlitical candidate Hera

(Courtesy of Salt Lake County Animal Services) Salt Lake County PAWlitical candidate Sputnik

(Courtesy of Salt Lake County Animal Services) Salt Lake County PAWlitical candidate Dro

(Courtesy of Salt Lake County Animal Services) Salt Lake County PAWlitical candidate Goliath

(Courtesy of Salt Lake County Animal Services) Salt Lake County PAWlitical candidate Leeloo

(Courtesy of Salt Lake County Animal Services) Salt Lake County PAWlitical candidates Stevie & Lou

(Courtesy of Salt Lake County Animal Services) Salt Lake County PAWlitical candidate Rainy

(Courtesy of Salt Lake County Animal Services) Salt Lake County PAWlitical candidate Bourbon

(Courtesy of Salt Lake County Animal Services) Salt Lake County PAWlitical candidate Roxie

(Courtesy of Salt Lake County Animal Services) Salt Lake County PAWlitical candidate Kandie

(Courtesy of Salt Lake County Animal Services) Salt Lake County PAWlitical candidate Churchill

(Courtesy of Salt Lake County Animal Services) Salt Lake County PAWlitical candidate Sully

(Courtesy of Salt Lake County Animal Services) Salt Lake County PAWlitical candidate Desmond

(Courtesy of Salt Lake County Animal Services) Salt Lake County PAWlitical candidate Pippa

(Courtesy of Salt Lake County Animal Services) Salt Lake County PAWlitical candidate Peppermint

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You can’t escape politics these days, and Salt Lake County has just made the topic even more unavoidable by taking a sweet, innocent pet fundraising drive and turning it into a slander-filled hate campaign.

If you find slogans like “Cats Rule, Dogs Drool” hateful, anyway.

A few weeks back, the county’s Animal Services Department launched PAWlitical Pets, an actual election where 16 Salt Lake County-residing pets were nominated for the office of PAWlitical mayor (formerly the less-inclusive Canine Mayor).

From this candidate pool, the pet with the most votes will win the mayoral title, which comes with a two-year term — unless the victorious canine or feline is impeached for crazy drunk-tweeting at 3 a.m. or leading us into a war with North Korea.

To stabilize the pet government, Salt Lake County is also filling the roles of pet deputy mayor a PAWlitical Pet Council.

To cast a ballot for your favorite, you have to participate in a good-old-fashioned Chicago-style vote buy. Each vote costs $1, and the pet with the most votes before the Nov. 10 deadline wins the mayoral gig, which will officially be announced Nov. 14, followed by an official swearing-in ceremony — really! — sometime after.

All the cash raised from this ballot-box stuffing will go to the county’s Injured Animal Fund, which provides care for sick and injured animals throughout the year.

As for the candidates, it’s a species-diverse slate of 14 dogs and two cats, leading to some hard-hitting questions: Why no guinea pigs, goldfish, snakes, lizards, or bunnies? Where is this election’s version of the United Utah Party? There’s one candidate named Sputnik — a sign of secret Russian meddling?

You can read the pets’ platforms and vote at http://slco.org/animal-services/pawlitical-pets/.