The City of West Hollywood’s Picasso Pets event will kick-off with the swearing-in of the City’s First Pet Mayor, Chloe Shyne, on Saturday, April 1, 2023 at 11 a.m. at West Hollywood Park, located at 647 N. San Vicente Boulevard.
The City’s Pet Mayor is a new program approved by the City Council of the City of West Hollywood in December 2022. As part of the program, the Mayor may choose to have their pet (dog, cat, or another animal companion) serve as the Pet Mayor during their mayoral term. The intent of the City’s Pet Mayor program is to enhance support for the West Hollywood community’s animals and animal guardians and help bring awareness to the City’s ongoing efforts and initiatives focused on animal welfare.
The City’s Pet Mayor will include pawsomeresponsibilities including taking part in events and initiatives centered on the well-being of pets in the community. The Pet Mayor will also be tasked with attending appropriate meetings and events, which may include attending fundraisers in support of animal rescue organizations, making fur-ever friends, wishing folks ‘bone appetit’ at dog-friendly establishments in West Hollywood, and other forms of community engagement.
Chloe is an eight-year-old rescue dog and the animal companion to the City’s current Mayor, Sepi Shyne. Chloe is a Shih Tzu, Chihuahua, Toy Poodle, and Maltese mix. She has been a resident of West Hollywood since 2014 and is a natural-born leader and big sister to two cat siblings. She is a foodie and loves to dance and give high fives.
Picasso Pets will provide an opportunity for pet parents to meet Chloe, as well as celebrate their own beloved best friend with a professional pet caricature drawing, giveaways, and a DIY craft paw-print keepsake. Caricature artists hours are fixed and there is a limit of one caricature drawing per pet during this first-come, first-served activity (no pre-registration required). Pets must remain leashed and under the control of their human at all times. No ruff housing!
The Pet Mayor swearing-in ceremony and the Picasso Pets event are free and open to the public. In case of rain, the event will take place inside West Hollywood Park’s Aquatic and Recreation Center, in the Doheny Room located on the second floor (which is adjacent to the surface level of West Hollywood Park).
The City of West Hollywood has been on the forefront of animal rights and protections for decades and the City’s commitment to animal rights is one of its legacies. The City has consistently worked to enact leading-edge animal welfare legislation.
In 1989, the West Hollywood City Council passed Resolution 558 making West Hollywood a “Cruelty-Free Zone” for animals. This action was then followed by West Hollywood’s move to secure animal care service policies that included a no-kill policy for stray and abandoned animals. The City also focused its efforts on raising awareness about the availability of thousands of abandoned animals at shelters waiting to be adopted, even sponsoring local adoption fairs at City parks — a tradition that continues to this day.
In 2004, the West Hollywood City Council passed an Ordinance to ban the practice of declawing cats, thereby making West Hollywood the first City in North America to ban this procedure. In 2008, the City of West Hollywood adopted a Resolution supporting Proposition 2, which led to a statewide standard in the caging of chickens; in 2009, the West Hollywood City Council took a stand against puppy-mills and the sale of dogs in local stores that came from such mills. The City of West Hollywood’s Ordinance prohibiting the sale of fur established that it is “unlawful to sell, offer for sale, display for sale, import, export, trade, or distribute any fur product by any means anywhere within the City of West Hollywood on or after September 21, 2013.” This Ordinance was approved by the West Hollywood City Council in November 2011 and, in August 2015, the Ordinance was amended.
The City of West Hollywood invites canine members of the community and their humans to sniff out a spot and romp around at the City’s two dog parks at West Hollywood Park. A small dog park and large dog park are located on each side of the park’s basketball courts and each area features expanses of open space with shade trees, small mounds and turf terraces, and water stations. In addition, the City operates the William S. Hart Park and Off-Leash Dog Park located at 8341 De Longpre Avenue.
For more information about the City of West Hollywood’s Pet Mayor, please contact Jennifer Del Toro, the City of West Hollywood’s Community and Legislative Affairs Supervisor, at (323) 848-6549 or at [email protected]. For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, please call TTY (323) 848-6496.
I’m so embarrassed for our city.
The dog has eyes like Charlie Manson, may he RIP.
Could residents of West Hollywood sponsor a one way ticket for a person and dog to Iran? Perhaps the Ayatollah will genuflect to an original hometown resident and install this individual on the Sun Throne aka the Peacock Throne who will deliver them from evil especially since Sepi Shyne presumes to be the enlightened one.
Where are the priorities for this City? First Priorities: Inauguration for a Dog Mayor, Drag Queen Laureate Grants, Faux Wellness Clinics, Excessive Arts Grants, Excessive Consultant Contracts due to the dearth of knowledgable staff, Sunset Digital Billboard Campaign, Historic Status for Sunset Rock Venues and Accompanied Revenue streams after years of deferred maintenance, profusion of hotels swimming the market. Neglected Priorities: Oversight of Erosion of Rent Stabilization Policies, *Continuation of Meaningful Emergency Assistance for Renters and Small Business Owners following Pandemic, Updated Citywide Design Guidelines forever stalled before the HAA update, Oversight of BnB intrusion into rental market, Oversight of… Read more »
To “Wag the Dog” means to distract attention away from a political scandal often through military action…..but in this case it is to soften Sepi’s image to make her “seem” more approachable & NICE….when she’s not! Her optics is NOT for us here in WeHo, it is for the people that will help her get elected to Adam Schiff’s open seat.
Mayor Shyne has even managed to make a victim out of her dog using her as a prop, an executive arm piece. a distraction and just an unfortunate being. Shyne likes to create victims so she can save them.
As I’ve said many times, victimhood and martyrdom are Shyne’s oxygen, without which she doesn’t survive.
Animal abuse to promote self serving issues.🙄
West Hollywood, the unserious city. West Hollywood already had a dog for mayor.
What absolute nonsense…
And by the way, how many other PETS were in the line-ip as candidates for this Hallowed Title? Was there a nominating committee? Was it a formal competition with Pet Tricks, Life Goals and the Bathing Suit strut? I would like to see a full list of all the candidates and their human companions. Unless of course this was Royal Decree from the Peahen Throne…
Now because of this idiot idea by the Queens Court (not a real man among the Counciltwits) the animal with this distinction will become a tax write off for the mayor because it’s a “work necessity.”
Shameful. It’s not too late to stop this travesty and ridiculous abuse of power by the wannabe Shah of West Hollywood and beyond.
She’s “The Shah Nah-Nah”.
It’s comforting to know that while this administration has the rest of the world laughing at us for pronoun training in the military and pushing for pre-teens to have irreversible genital mutilation, that individual cities like ours are also doing their part.