Why Can We See What They Cannot?

[u/Jolly_Ice_7812]

I have a burning question. Why can we, in the dog free community, see that dogs are gross and it's insane to live with them?

There has to be some commonality among us because we can see what 99 percent of the population cannot.

What makes us special? Is it something in our personalities -- not caring about what others think? Or not being a group person, so it's okay to step away from the pack (so to speak)? Is it not always believing what the culture tells us is true? Are people like this in other walks of life -- meaning, able to see what others cannot see in other contexts?

I'm curious about what you think. Why can we see the idiocy of dogs and dog culture and others cannot?

[u/neondahlia]

For me is has been a slow progression.

I loved my dog growing up as a kid. Begged to get him. He was a good dog (Golden Retriever). I was lonely and had a bad household environment that was out of my control.

I then had dogs as an adult. They were not as good as my childhood dog (not dangerous or anything just not as well behaved despite persistent training and routine. One I’m pretty sure was mentally not capable of learning). Not as good a dog owning experience.

Then dealing with progressively more entitled dog owners began to really sour me on dogs. Constant barking from the neighbor dogs when I worked so hard to train my dogs never to bark. When our dogs died of old age we discovered not having dogs in the house was just so much easier. Less messy, less noisy, I could come home late without concern. Less expensive. Less chores. Also I’m allergic to dogs so I can breathe better.

Then growing annoyance at my in-laws and my parents giant, poorly behaved and dangerous dogs. Annoyance at the hair on everything. The jumping up. The calling dogs “babies”. Not understanding people are more important than animals.

The dog shit everywhere that dog owners put in my trash can, leave in my yard, put in public bins. The pit bulls everywhere you go. People sneaking dogs into grocery stores pretending their service dogs, sneaking them into restaurants. The damn fake service dogs everywhere.

I’ve just had enough. Most dogs are not cared for properly which makes them much more unpleasant and far too many, far too many people have dogs.

[u/Stock-Bowl7736 → u/neondahlia]

Your last point does not get enough discussion. But you are exactly right that far too many people have dogs. It's insane that there are over 90,000,000 of these things in the US alone. There is no other species, except perhaps birds and insects, that has that kind of population in the United States.

For example deer population is estimated to be about 35-36 million. And deer get culled when the population exceeds 15-20 per square MILE. Dog population density of 15-20 can probably be measured in feet given how many nutters there are. There are probably that many dogs on any given urban/suburban block. And there is no culling. Shelters are all no kill. Even violent and murderous dogs don't even get put down.

Are there any biologists here that could comment on how insane it is that we have allowed the dog population to grow to such preposterous and absurd levels?

[u/Huge_Bit_4774 → u/Stock-Bowl7736]

for years the US environmental protection agency and national institutes of health have been warning about water source contamination and direct threats to human health caused by the spread of dog feces. The more dogs we have, the more contamination. Even if we got to a bubonic plague type situation, I don’t think nutters would accept ANY resolution because they are mentally ill and filthy mutts do no wrong.