UK election 2024 live updates: Polls are open as Labour Party seeks to return to power

Seemingly every news site had a gallery of dogs outside polling stations. Good dogs, patiently waiting for their owners to do their civic duty while the news business fulfilled an obligation of its own to protect the sanctity of elections.

The U.K. has restrictions on what can be reported on election days before the polls close to avoid influencing voters. Unlike the U.S., where there is wall-to-wall coverage and analysis, there is no such reporting in Britain.

They simply report that people are going to the polls, along with photos and footage of the lead candidates entering polling stations. But there is no discussion of their campaign platforms.

Thus, the puppy love.

There was Alfie, a blonde shaggy dog in Chiswick, Arnie a cockapoo wearing a rainbow color bowtie in Liverpool and Tobie the ottherhound in Norfolk. Those hounds were on Sky News.

On the BBC, there was Lucien, a Bernese mountain dog, lying outside Antrobus Village Hall in Cheshire, Pippin, a fox red Labrador, in the Edgware part of London, and Maui, an Old English sheepdog in Wokingham.

Journalists went the extra mile to show that it wasn’t just pooches at polls. They found at least two horses, a cat, a chicken and a giant snake named Neptune.