Why doesn't Illinois have a state dog?
Chihuahuas top the list for Illinois pet owners, so how do pet owners get lawmakers to confirm this breed as our state dog?
When I saw recent news that PetLab Co., wanted to see what would happen if they used artificial intelligence to draw each state as a dog, the AI results weren’t nearly as interesting to me. Instead, I was Today Years Old while finding out that there are state dogs at all — and Illinois doesn’t even have one.
The AI image generator drew a long-haired Chihuahua for Texas, which was especially interesting to me considering marketing agency TOP data ranked this breed as the number one dog in Illinois. I’m not surprised. When I walk my Hound mix, I see Chihuahuas all the time on my triple treks.
People reports that there are 13 states with their own state dog from the ‘60s until now:
Alaska: Alaskan Malamute (2010)
Louisiana: Catahoula Leopard Dog (1979)
Maryland: Chesapeake Bay Retriever (1964)
Massachusetts: Boston Terrier (1979)
New Hampshire: Chinook (2009)
North Carolina: Plott Hound (1989)
Pennsylvania: Great Dane (1965)
South Carolina: Boykin Spaniel (1985)
Texas: Blue Lacy (2005)
Virginia: American Foxhound (1966)
Wisconsin: American Water Spaniel (1985)
And a couple other states chose to not pick a breed. Instead, they picked a cause.
Georgia: Adoptable Dog (2016)
New York: Working Dogs (2015)
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But even though TOP Data analyzed a database of 500K adopted dogs and surveyed 1,000 dog owners, none of Illinois’ top-five dogs (Chihuahua, Labrador Retriever, Pit Bull, Mutt, Beagle) made it to the state dog level to join these 13. Why? And how do Illinoisan dog lovers change this?