OK, voting in Bakersfield's "Pet Idol" contest is now under way through Sept. 13.

The top 12 vote getters will earn their spot in a 2010 calendar, proceeds of which will benefit local animal shelters. Support a great cause and cast your vote. To see the 256 entries, you can either look at a slideshow, thumbnail photos or search by keyword.

PLEASE GO TO THE PET IDOL SITE AND VOTE FOR CINDY LOU WHO OR CHARLIE!  THEY THANK YOU AND THEIR MOMMY THANKS YOU :-)

Where are the winners to Pet Idol?

Wish I would've seen this earlier...darn it!

Winners are posted.

Congrats to the top 12, and thanks to the thousands who voted and the hundreds who submitted photos. 

Congrats to the winners.

It says under the rules  " One pet per photo" yet many of the photographs have more than one animal, including a few of the winners. Why is that?

MyTwoCents,

Good question.

Partially through the competition, we decided not to disqualify individuals because the entry fees were being donated to animal-welfare organizations. We felt if we started turning away orders that we'd receive even fewer donations this year. And we were already down a good number compared to the $16,000 raised last year. While we're grateful for all the entries, this year's total was only a quarter of last year.

If the rules were changed regardless of the reason it should have been edited and posted as such during the competition.  I'm sure there were people that did not submit great pictures of their animals because they were following the posted rules. Hopefully the rules will be changed so next year they will be accurate.

I felt that the photographs were not easy to look through, I found it difficult to even find the entry I submitted let alone view all of the other entries. Having almost 300 photographs , odds are people will look through a few pages and vote, and the people who entered the contest early and have dear fluffy on page 12 have much less chance of receiving votes than the animals posted on the first page. If they were displayed on only one or two pages it would be easier to access and easier for people to vote.  Another idea would be to limit the number of finalists - perhaps by allowing voting during the final week taking the top 100 voted and the top 50 pictures chosen by Bakersfield.com or the humane society, and only having those animals in the finals.

Allowing people to vote for one dog AND one cat, and having the winners be the top 6 cats and top 6 dogs could be an idea to mull over.  It would seem that with such a difference in the amount of money raised it has to be attributed to more than just current economic woes. Maybe starting a blog for people who have entered in the past, or entered this year, could generate some great ideas for improving this contest for future years.

well fine.   now YOU can explain to MY babies why they didn't win!  Cindy Lou Who was 'crushed'. Charlie........not so much!!!!!

That was fun!  Maybe next year will garner more people - hopefully.

Another solution to the large number of photos would be to randomize the order in which they are displayed so every pet has a chance to reach the front page regardless of when they entered.

This is great feedback. 

Some of these suggestions we can implement ourselves, but some we'll have to share other stuff with the software vendor who supplies this particular tool. But I think they'd find the feedback valuable and worth pursuing. 

Thanks