[DESS]

Originally Posted by DESS

Let's get a couple things out of the way right out of the gate.

• yes, I'm completely serious about this
• no, I'm not trolling

Okay, this is why I don't like dogs:

1. They are loud. I can hear them barking at night and I can hear them barking in the morning. If I walked outside and shouted randomly on a daily basis, the cops would be all over me. Why do dogs get away with it?
2. They are dangerous - not bear dangerous - but dangerous enough as outlined by the City here. Yes of course your dog isn't, but some are. In fact, there was an incident every day of the year with an agressive dog in Calgary last year. A low-incident year (according to the article), but unacceptable nevertheless. Obviously this only tracks the incidents reported, so it's safe to assume the rates are even higher.
3. Crap. People simply don't pick up after their dogs and it is absolutely disgusting. Kudos to you if you do, but enough don't that it is an obvious problem.
4. Urine. I've never seen any dog owner, no matter how responsible, pick up their dog's urine. If I whipped out my schlong in the middle of a park where children were playing to take a leak, people would freak. Let's put the public nudity aspect of that example aside, people would be disgusted that I was peeing where kids were playing. I find it equally disgusting to know and see dogs do this, but it is somehow socially unacceptable to call out a guy for letting his dog piss whereever. It's outrageous, frankly.
5. They're dirty and they smell bad.

You know, I understand people love their dogs and that's great. And I can also see that it would be unfair to take a dog out of somebody's home - both to the dog and to the owner.

A more realistic solution to this pest problem we have would be a city-funded initiative to spay and neuter every dog in the city, ban the sale/possession of any new dogs, and just wait for the current generation of dogs to pass away. Within say 15 years the problem would be solved.

I would be curious to know if anyone else would be interested in this plan. Perhaps we could start a petition or do something to get the ball rolling on this. Obviously it will be a tough thing to achieve, but I think if we are compassionate to the current dog owners, make exceptions for work dogs, etc. this may have legs. It will certainly get support from some people, I'm just not sure how many at this point.

Originally Posted by Dion

I'm sure blind people losing thier seeing eye dogs would greatly appreciate you banning all dogs.

Sorry Dion, you're wrong again. I would never want to see blind people lose their seeing eye dogs; I'm not a monster.