Last year I arrived at my new farm, just a few months before the elections. Before applying to be the guard dog I learned about the tradition of electing a new president every four years. It was only when I arrived that I learned that the Pig won every election in the past 12 years. I thought this was a little unusual but since I was new here I didn’t care about it very much.

I settled into my new home right between the sheep's pens and the chicken coops. The dog house was small and outdated, but I thought I could bring that up later. I looked out the window only to witness a giant billboard being put up. The billboard read: “YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW WHAT HE’S PLOTTING” right next to the face of the old Tortoise. That’s all it said. Since I was interested in why such an odd thing would be put up in a popular spot on the farm, I stepped out of my house and called over a sheep. 

“HEY! You see that billboard over there?” The sheep looked at me, then glanced over at the sign. 

“Yeah” The sheep raised its ears slightly. But I didn’t walk over.

“Can you explain what it’s supposed to mean?” 

“Didn’t you just read it, what do you think it could mean?” The sheep made a confused and equally disgusted face. “It’s obvious that the Tortoise is up to no good.”

I got highly confused by this interaction, making me want to ask so many questions. But the sheep already turned around and left. As I watched him walk away, I noticed that some trees were being cut down behind the sheep. Since I had plenty of time, I decided to walk over and explore the farm. I walked around the sheep pens, I noticed that there was a massive deforested area with a little wooden structure in the middle. Next to it, there was a small sign with the farm's government logo in the corner. I walked closer and to read it. Turns out the structure was a canopy walk. The sign also mentioned that the owner of the land received a government grant of €10,000 for the construction of the canopy walk. I thought for a second. I don’t really know what a canopy walk is, but I don’t think you're supposed to cut down the trees around it. Also, it’s about 30 meters long. My cousin could build it in two days for a fraction of the price. I decided to Google the owner of the land and to my surprise it was owned by a chicken. I saw that she had a Wikipedia page so I decided to dig in a little bit. After about three minutes of research I found out that this chicken was the richest animal on the farm. But, she only laid two-three eggs and then suddenly became a billionaire entrepreneur. Little contradicting. Coincidentally this chicken was the high-school best friend of the Pig. Not only that but the second richest animal on the farm was also a chicken, another family friend of the Pig…

That doesn’t seem very democratic. I decided to move on and ask around about this shady canopy walk and its owner. I walked down to the creek, and crossed the bridge. An Owl that was sitting on the tree flew over to me. 

“So you're the new guard dog!” He landed on a fence that was probably used to tie down horses back in the day. “How do you like it here so far?”

“Honestly, it's a bit of an odd place. I’ve been here for half a day and saw a weird billboard and a canopy walk with no trees.”

The Owl just shrugged his wings. “It has been like this forever, probably not going to change any time soon”

“What do you mean by like this?”

“The Pig is a corrupt bastard. Ever since he gained power this farm has been doing worse and worse.” The Owl leaned against the fence post. “He gained popularity, and now he will never lose it.” 

“How so?” I asked.

“He has complete control over the media. Every billboard, every tv channel, every newspaper is owned by one of his friends.” The Owl hopped off the fence and started walking. As we turned the corner around an old barn house, he pointed at a billboard. It had the same picture of the turtle, with the words “STOP the Tortoise’s plan” 

“Do you see that? Do you know who that is?” He didn’t stop walking but turned his head 180 degrees to look at me.

“I’m not sure, isn’t he like some kind of a…”

“He’s a Tortoise who used to live here, but moved to a neighboring farm and got crazy rich. He donates a ton of money to animal rights organizations. Which scares the Pig and his group, since they’ve been trying to limit those rights as much as they can.”

“Interesting.”

“Since all the media outlets there is an endless source of propaganda coming from every corner of this place.”

I didn’t know what to say, I was shocked, and honestly a little skeptical. I’ve seen interviews with the Pig and he didn’t strike me as a person who would do something like that. So I just continued to follow the Owl, and learn more about the workings of what he called the “propaganda machine”. The more he told me about it the more I wondered why didn’t the animals just elect someone else then. Since, I was curios and I also wanted to stop the ranting Owl, I asked him about it.

“That's what we are all wondering about. Last time we thought he might have cheated on the election, but sadly that wasn’t the case. I believe the main reason is the number of sheep and chicken on this farm.”

“They are the supporters?”

“They are the majority, yes. All they do is sit in their enclosures and get blasted by propaganda all day. I don’t blame them.”

“I guess that makes sense, but why don’t you just tell them that the Pig is corrupt and just exploiting the farm's resources?”

“You know I tried that a million times. There have been documented cases of the Pig himself giving out tax money to his son in law. Or using the presidential tractor for his own private vacation trips.” He paused to think of a few other examples. “I could name at least fifteen more examples. None of these even raise the eyebrows of these sheep. They will immediately recite whatever the machine told them. He was actually on a business trip, getting funds to improve the farm's infrastructure. Those funds are the ones that you saw on the sign next to that great canopy walk.”

“Oh, I see. So what is the plan that this Tortoise is plotting?” I could already guess his answer, but I was still a little curious.

“I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but the plan is all made up. It is actually a genius idea if you think about it. All the sheep and chicken are scared to death by the evil plans of the Tortoise, but the Pig promises to protect them.” Just as the Owl said this, a flock of sheep passed next to us, and a sheep that heard the Owl stopped. 

“He doesn’t just promise, he delivers. Don’t you remember when all those birds were passing through this region. He saved us from them. Look at the Felix ranch, they are still stuck with many of those good-for-nothing birds.”

I looked over at the Owl, who seemed like he was just going to ignore the comment, but after seeing me wait for his answer he gave a rather short answer.

“I lost motivation to argue about any of this. Have a nice day.” We continued to walk past the sheep. I waited for all of them to pass then asked the Owl:

“You could’ve at least said something to correct him.” The Owl gave me a sad look.

“It’s pointless. I’m telling you, I tried so many times. I only got both sides mad, but I was never able to convince anybody.”

“Not even about the Bear?”

“The Pig started his career saying that we gotta fight against the Bear, that he is a threat to our farm. Now those same supporters support him in making more and more deals with him. The only person who can change their mind about anything is the Pig.”

“But the Bear attacked Pavlo’s farm, literally the neighbor. Isn’t that enough to make them realize?”

“Nu uh. They think it is actually the Eagle’s fault. Based on the propaganda, the Eagle actually sent a ton of money to Pavlo’s to get them to kill the Bear, and he is just doing all this out of self defense.”

“How does that even make sense???”

“It doesn’t have to. When you hear something fifty times a day, you will eventually start to believe it.”

I thought about that. It made sense, but I still couldn’t believe that the Pig was able to stay in power for so long if he did if he was as corrupt as the Owl said. I walked in silence for the next fifteen minutes. We walked past some amazing landscape, but it was covered in plastic bottles and trash.

“How come the other candidates aren’t exposing the Pig. You said there are broadcasted debates before the elections.”

“That is another problem, all the other candidates are already discredited before they get a chance to do that. For example, the Donkey who used to be the president, had a voice recording leaked where he confessed to stealing €2000. It’s nothing compared to what the Pig and his friends have stolen over the years, but it's brought up every week even today. If anyone new shows up, all they do is dig up any dirt they can find, and exaggerate it enough so that they become public enemies. If that doesn't work they can always say that they are the Donkey’s or the Tortoise’s agents.”

“How about this new guy? This young Goat? Surely they don’t have anything on him.”

“Not yet… and don’t call me Surely”

***

On election day the air was tense. I walked out of my house, the sheep didn’t seem to bothered, they all got extra food today, courtesy of the Pig. I called the Owl, for the first time in a while he seemed hopeful. The Goat had a lot of support, even some chickens were on his side. And that one sheep, who I was able to convince after days of back and forths that the Goat was a better option. All the horses and ducks and geese and rabbits united and voted for the Goat. It seemed like it was going to be a close battle. I went to the gathering in front of the Pigs palace, to wait for the results announcement. There were still twenty minutes left, but the polls were closed, so the result was set, we just had to wait for all the votes to be counted up. Even a Hawk was present, who was sent by the Eagle to report back on the result. The Goat was standing on the side of a massive boulder. He was so nervous, he couldn’t stop walking around on the steep edge. If he wasn’t a Goat he would probably have ended up on top of the ducks underneath him, but he kept his balance until the results were announced.

The Pig stepped out on the balcony of his palace and with his nose unrolled the scroll containing the results. The Pig got 67% of the votes. The largest victory during his presidency. 

The devastated crowd looked over at the Goat, but the Donkey spoke first: 

“I told you he would never win.”