Do your part to keep North Kansas City off this poster. (Publicity photo)

I'm not a great lover of dogs. In fact, I'm both physically and emotionally allergic to them, and I have yet to read a single convincing argument as to why anyone, with the exception of the blind, should lawfully be allowed to bring one of those gauche, filthy beasts out into public (where, inevitably, it homes in on me, the dog hater, and proceeds to violate my personal space — and then some).

For all my hatred for those overgrown rats, however, I also have no interest in seeing them abused, abandoned, or killed, so I'm happy to plug a local animal shelter when its interests happen to intersect, however tenuously, with mine as TBD's film reporter. As Middleburg Life reports, the Middleburg Humane Foundation in northern Virginia is in the running for a spot in the upcoming film Smitty, starring Mira Sorvino, Peter Fonda, Louis Gossett Jr., and — the reason I'll never see the film — a wheaten terrier mix.

By "spot" I mean "poster on a wall," but hey, if Washingtonians wet their pants over three days of Transformers 3, you can imagine how little it takes for an animal shelter in a town of some 600 people to get excited. The grand prize winner of the Smitty contest is decided by online voters, and the Middleburg shelter currently trails those punny city slickers at S'Wheat Rescues, a wheaten terrier shelter in North Kansas City, Mo., by almost 500 votes.

"We would love to win," says Hilleary Bogley, who founded MHF 17 years ago. "I think it would be a wonderful opportunity for our organization to get huge recognition.... We have worked very hard to get into that number-two slot in the nation. We're a small community, so we're pretty proud."

Hollywood, of course, doesn't have an excellent track record when it comes to animals. While horses aren't being forced off cliffs anymore, films like 101 Dalmations inspire impulse purchases of dogs that, it turns out, aren't naturally good pets. "When 101 Dalmations came out, for the following three years after that movie, all of the humane societies ... saw a tremendous influx of Dalmations," says Bogley. That's why, if MHF wins, its poster will contain a message about spaying and neutering pets.

If that's not reason enough, vote for Middleburg over S'Wheat (using a fake email address, if necessary) because its website doesn't look like a 12-year-old girl's Geocities page circa 1997.