Were there ever municipalities that held elections for dogcatcher (or,
failing that, "dog warden" or "animal control officer" or something
similar)?  Are there still?  If not, when was the last election held?

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Clarification of Question by jbullock35-ga on 28 Dec 2005 11:46 PST

I should have clarified: I am particularly (though not exclusively)
interested in American elections.

The insult you allude to in your question, "I wouldn't vote him for
local dogcatcher," is a common political insult.  More generally,
dogcatcher refers to any relatively lowly elected position such as
local school board, a political party's district leader, or any other
seemingly (relatively) unimportant position.  I was, however, able to
a few references to real, elected dog catchers.  First, in Idaho in
the 1960s, there was a dogcatcher from St. Maries, who led an
unsuccessful movement to recall United States Senator Frank Church in
the 1960s. The effort gained national attention and was featured in an
article in the New York Times.  Also, in Edwardsburgh/Cardinal,
Canada, the dogcatcher is Chris Arsenault (his phone number is listed
on the web page).  At one point in history, it appears that elections
for dogcatcher were common.  Today, the position is typically a hired
or appointed job like any other low-level municipal employee such as
crossing guard.  To make informed voting easier, many positions such
as dogcatcher were removed from ballots and made openly hired
positions (after all, if you can't make an informed choice in a city
council or school board election, how can one make informed decisions
on many low-level service providing positions?).

Patrick, you might have given a reference for that excerpt.

Here is someone who thinks there are no longer elected dog catchers:
http://www.horsesass.org/my-comments-popup.php?p=789&c=1

But here is a personal site that mentions one but the person may
actually have been appointed and not elected:
http://www.anasark.com/doggie_day_care/bio.htm