In Pictures: Shropshire dogs - and a pony - at polling stations for General Election 2024
After a long six weeks of campaigning, polling stations have opened for voters to have their say - which means the return of #dogsatpollingstations.
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Dog lovers across the county are popping to the polling stations with pups-in-tow today as the polls open.
It took less than half an hour of the polls being open before #dogsatpollingstations began to trend on X (formerly Twitter). Within two hours, it was outperforming #GeneralElection24.
The online trend began gathering momentum in the UK general elections of 2015 and 2017, by 2019, participants included Boris Johnson and Sadiq Khan - Ed Davey even posted a picture of his family's guinea pig.
So as voting gets underway, we've been scouring the internet for Shropshire's best boys and girls participating in the democratic process (sort of).
It's not just been pups at the polls either, Church Aston resident Amy Hughes travelled to her station on horseback on Thursday morning.
It was the first trip to the polls for nine year old Connemara pony, Vali.
Amy explained: "It's about 2.5 miles each way so Vali and I left home just before 6.30am in order that I could get there and then home in time for work.
"I think that voting is really important, and so I enjoy the sense of occasion in riding to the polling station - and also hope to raise awareness/inspire others to get out and vote for change."
Taking your pet to the polls? Email your pictures to megan.jones@shropshirestar.com
