Rosalind Wright is a writer, mom, and supports putting people before animals. Residing in the Midwest, she lives in a city where people don't understand leash laws or "no dogs allowed" signs. This makes her very angry.
For some reason, we as a society has just accepted the fact that dogs will shit and piss wherever, and on whomever’s lawn. So much so that many people have taken to ruining their beautiful gardens with signs asking owners to keep their dogs out, despite the fact that many dog owners don’t even bother to clean up their shit let alone keep their dogs off of other people’s property. This causes many people to think they’re a good owner simply for bagging their dog shit or removing it, never bothering to realize they’re still contaminating someone else’s lawn.
There’s been a growing trend in dog owners to bag their dog’s poo, then leave it somewhere to “come back later” and pick it up. However a lot of people don’t bother to come back to it at all, or “forget” where they left it. The bagged shit just piles up, more people leave shit behind where it doesn’t belong, and it just bakes in the sun.
A lot of these times, these shitbag surprises are left in parks or along sidewalks, where the rest of the community has to come across them and deal with them, but not always. We’ve had dog owners come onto our private property and leave their bagged shit on the bench in our garden, leaving us to deal with it. The nice bag shit was accompanied by a nice lovely unbagged fresh poop left on the ground in front of it, again, on our private property that is clearly private property. But as you can see from above, when one dog owner decides to be a jerk, a lot of others justify their jerk behavior.
And I know, a lot of dog owners thought process behind leaving their poopbags around is that they don’t want to carry poop their entire walk. Well, tough shit (pun intended), that’s part of owning a dog. If you don’t want to carry shit with you, train your dog to only shit in your own yard, then you wont have to worry about it.
Because even if you do clean up and take the poo with you, you’re still contaminating other people’s yards and public green space by allowing your dog to go wherever it wants. Even if you pick up the big turds, you’re still leaving the residue of it all over someone else’s property. One gram of dog shit can contain a host of gross things, including ringworm, hookworm, salmonella, and a bunch of other nasty things. You’re still leaving all that behind when you let your dog shit on other people’s lawns.
And it isn’t just poop that ruins greenspaces. Dog urine kills grass. It’s high in nitrogen and causes burns to plants, killing them.
If you don’t care that your lawn in ruined from your dog, that’s your choice. But your choice in pets shouldn’t destroy other people’s property or investments.
The simple solution to this is one dog owners seem increasingly resistant to, training their dog to only use their yard and not allowing it to go onto other people’s property. Recognize that you choosing to have a pet means taking responsibility for it and not inflicting it on others, including their bathroom habits.
The No Kill Movement was started in the 80s with Best Friends Animal Society at the forefront, and has grown into the massive movement within the shelter/rescue industry over the past decade. More and more municipal animal shelters, as well as private shelters and rescues, are becoming low to no kill and the pressure is on for open admission shelters to convert over to no kill models.
Traditionally, No Kill was intended to not kill animals simply because of shelter space. Under no kill models, animals could still be humanely euthanized for serious health conditions and behavioral problems that posed a threat to public safety. But as the no kill movement continues to bloom, the values continue to shift to trying to save more and more animals, regardless of health or behavioral issues. Yet the real costs of the movement isn’t often discussed or is limited to only financial costs, while in reality, the no kill movement is costing us much more than just tax and donation dollars.
The Financial Costs
The actual financial costs of converting a municipal shelter to no kill isn’t readily apparent. While lobby organizations like Best Friends Animal Society will offer grants to help convert open admission shelters to no kill, it isn’t enough to fully cover the additional cost of converting a shelter, especially not in large municipalities. According to the Chicago Tribune, the city’s annual budget for the government ran Animal Care and Control is about $5.59 million dollars a year, with PAWS Chicago founder Paula Fasseas stating that even that large budget is “about $10 million short for a city our size” and that to reach no-kill status, the ACC budget would have to be doubled at least.
While it’s understood that for smaller municipalities the costs wouldn’t be nearly as high, with many municipalities grappling with budget issues and having to cut necessary functions, pouring more money into animal shelters might not be viable.
This doesn’t even take into account the shift in values from no kill advocates. While initially started as a noble means to prevent healthy, safe pets from being euthanized for space, many no kill advocates aim to try and get euthanasia rates as close to zero as possible, even if those animals were euthanized for allowable reasons under the no kill mindset.
In September of 2018, Kent County Animal Shelter was under fire for their euthanasia rate of 39%, even though none of the animals were euthanized for space reasons. According to the shelter supervisor Carly Luttmann, all of the dogs and cats that were euthanized were because of health or behavioral reasons. Dogs that come in with aggressive behaviors or a history of aggression aren’t evaluated, but are humanely euthanized. Still, for advocates that isn’t doing enough because they aren’t trying to “save” the dangerous dogs that come in.
Kent County’s annual budget is currently at $2.3 million dollars, and like Chicago, would likely need to be doubled in order to meet goals by no kill advocates.
What No Kill Costs Animals
The financial costs of the no kill movement aren’t the only costs. Many rescues start out as well intentioned rescues, but quickly devolve into animal hoarding situations where the animals suffer horrendous abuse. Pittie Paw Rescue is one of the more recent cases of this. Started in 2016 as a pit bull rescue and sanctuary, it only took 2 years for the horror behind the 501(c)3 rescue to be exposed.
Joyce Meisenhelder and Kristin Beaupry, the mother-daughter duo that run Pittie Paw Rescue
The pair were accused of animal cruelty and abandonment after they left a trailer with 23 cats abandoned when they were evicted from their home. They still had 71 dogs in their custody at the time, until a visit from the dog warden removed 14 of them. As of today, the remaining dogs were seized, but glimpses inside the horror of that rescue are still surfacing.
Trailer where they abandoned 23 cats
Pittie Paw Rescue is one of the growing number of rescues that refuse to euthanize for behavioral reasons. While the current investigations have shown that they had over 20 dogs with bite records, only a handful were in the rescue as “sanctuary dogs”, meaning they were set to spend their lives in those horrific conditions. That also means they were set to try and adopt out known dangerous dogs that they pulled from municipal shelters or had surrendered to them. And had they not been caught and the dogs seized, they likely would have.
And while many will argue that the horrendous conditions and hoarding of Pittie Paws isn’t the norm, it’s not exactly uncommon either, especially in the world of no kill pit bull rescues. Earlier this year, Pit Stop for Change, who was mentored by Tia Torres of Villalobos rescue and star of Pit Bulls and Parolees, was exposed for animal hoarding as well, in which multiple dogs were found dead after they left their Luisiana facility to head to Michigan. Over the years, more and more rescue operations get busted for animal cruelty in hoarding situations.
The Cost to Public Safety
But for many shelters, instead of hoarding animals to the point of cruelty, they try desperately to adopt out or release as many animals as they can. This issue isn’t just found in private rescues, but in municipal shelters who adopted the “no kill” policy as well.
In December of 2016, a pit bull named Blue was surrendered to Animal Care Centers of New York – Manhattan, a municipal shelter that adopted the “no kill” policy. Blue had been surrendered by his owners for biting a child. Traditionally in shelters, that would slate a dog for humane euthanasia, as it poses a public safety risk to release a known dangerous dog. Instead of euthanizing him, they pulled him for rescue with their New Hope Adoption Program.
After being shuffled through 5 different rescue programs in the course of 6 months, Blue made his way to the Virginia based rescue Forever Home Rescue & Rehabilitation Center. He was initially adopted out in late April of 2017, before being returned to the rescue two days later for aggressively biting the adopters nephew. The rescue, denying that it was aggression, adopted Blue to Linda Colvin Patterson on May 31st, 2017. Within hours, Blue fatally attacked Linda’s mother Margaret Colvin.
Blue is not the first recently adopted out pit bull to attack, and he certainly wasn’t the last. In September 2018, Robin Conway was fatally mauled by the death row pit bull she adopted two weeks prior. In fact, the increase of fatal and serious attacks by adopted pit bulls has become so common over the past few years, that dogsbite.org has added it to one of the 33 parameters they report on for fatal dog attacks.
And not all of these adopters realize they’re adopting out known dangerous dogs. In an effort to increase live release rates, it’s not uncommon for a shelter to not report a dog bite incident against staff or disclose known bite incidents to adopters. FHRC never informed Linda of Blue’s previous bite record; if they had, her mother might have never been brutally mauled to death. Virginia has decided to write into law that a shelter or rescue must disclose bite record, but the penalty for not doing so is a mere $500, and it’s STILL legal to rehome a dangerous dog.
Is No Kill Worth It?
These types of practices and disregard for public safety can have long term damaging effects on the shelter/rescue industry. As these sorts of attacks become more common and shelters still aren’t held accountable for non disclosure of behavioral problems, people will start turning away from pet adoption and shelters all together. The risks of adopting don’t outweigh the benefits, and more people will either opt to not have a pet or turn to breeders.
Is life in a cage and a hoarding situation really better than a humane euthanasia? Is it really worth the risk adopting a dog when shelters and rescues will often not disclose bite records or behavior problems? The no kill movement has been on the rise for the past decade, and thanks to it we’re seeing more animal hoarding, more dangerous dogs who should be euthanized being adopted out, and an overabundance of pit bulls that no one wants flooding shelters across the country.
It’s time for us to truly evaluate if the all of the costs, financial and otherwise, are truly worth it and truly humane. Lives depend on it.
Every time I tell someone I don’t like dogs, this is usually the first question they ask. And the simple answer is I just don’t like dogs, they’re not my cup of tea. However, I find more and more recently that the short answer doesn’t really suffice and many dog lovers take this as a challenge, demanding to know my reasoning and trying to find some way to change my mind.
For some reason, it’s a controversial statement to say that you don’t like dogs. Even though millions of people have cynophobia (the fear of dogs), there’s still an assumption that most people love dogs and given how fanatical some people are about dogs, it’s generally accepted that the default position on dogs is favorable.
My primary reasons for disliking dogs can be broken down into a few different reasons. I don’t like dogs for these main reasons:
They’re gross
They’re too needy
They’re disruptive
They damage the ecosystem
They’re dangerous
I want to note that these are the reasons I don’t like dogs as an animal. I’m trying to specifically limit my scope to just the animals, not irresponsible owners or insane dog culture (which I also dislike, but each is a huge topic in and of itself). I’m making this clear because a lot of times when I say I don’t like dogs, dog lovers make the jump that I just don’t like irresponsible dog owners and/or dog culture. While it’s true I don’t like those things either, I also truly just do not like dogs. At all.
Dogs are Disgusting
Despite the myth that a dog’s mouth is cleaner than a human’s being so pervasive, dogs are extremely dirty animals. From all of the outside bacteria they track on their paws and fur to the garbage eating and anus licking, dogs are just absolutely gross animals. A lot of this grossness is overlooked by many people, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
Dogs evolved as scavenger animals. Like rats, they’re basically a city’s biological clean up crew. Dogs frequently get into garbage cans, eating rotting food and biological waste whenever they can. What’s worse than eating literal garbage? Dogs also eat poop and vomit frequently, even their own. When dogs do hunt, they eat their prey anus first, unlike most animals that start with the organs.
Even if you manage to keep your dog away from their favorite shitty snacks and other filth, they still frequently lick their anus and genitals. Almost all dogs get infested with worms, and even if you’re able to stop them from eating poop, you wont be able to stop them from going to slobber town on their own anus all the time. Just remember that the next time you’re getting “doggy kisses”.
Even if your dog doesn’t eat feces, lick anuses, or eat garbage, dogs track and pick up a wide variety of bacteria from just being outside. Even if you groom your dog regularly, it’s still bringing loads of bacteria into your home and transferring it onto everything it touches. Watch this clip from Inside Edition. Even though all of the dogs appear to be well groomed, they’re all tracking in so many bacteria and fungi from just being dogs and spreading that all around these homes.
Even the cleanest of dogs are still beyond gross. They’ll still roll in and eat poop and carcasses, then come plop themselves on your couch or bed. While many dog owners don’t seem to mind this, to me, it’s absolutely disgusting. That smell and that filth lingers in your home, it’s noticeable to everyone and there aren’t enough air fresheners in the world to overpower it.
Dogs Are Very Needy
I realize this is a very subjective aspect, but this is my blog and my reasons for not liking dogs, so *shrugs*.
Dogs are just way too needy and too hyperactive for my taste. What do I mean? Take this gif. See how the dog responds when its food source owner comes home? Jumping, liking at the face, and overall hyperactivity from the dog?
Yeah, that’s just too much for me.
I’m someone who enjoys my personal space and doesn’t really like to have it invaded by another creature constantly and that’s what dogs tend to want to do – be in your face 24/7 trying to lick your face, begging for food. Because all of that licking, jumping, hyperactivity is really just a response to the perception that you’re going to give it food soon, it’s not actual affection. Coupled with how gross dogs are in general, I’d rather not have them jumping up on me or trying to lick my face.
But the perceived “happiness” of dogs isn’t the only part of their overall neediness. Dogs are a lot of work. A lot of work. Far more work than any other type of pet. Many, many dogs have psychological issues like separation anxiety and will destroy their owner’s homes if they’re left alone for any amount of time. Many, many dogs have various aggression issues that people try to “train out” of it. A lot of these issues stem from not treating a dog like a dog, but modern dog ownership expects people to basically sign their lives away for the sake of a dog.
Dogs Ruin Peaceful Environments
Dogs are disruptive to pretty much any environment they’re put in. Whether it’s a bunch of dogs barking their heads off at every pedestrian walking down the street, barking at wildlife when on nature trails, or constant begging for food, dogs ruin the peaceful atmosphere wherever they go.
Imagine you’ve just bought your first home and you’re enjoying a fresh cup of coffee on your back porch looking over your new backyard with a sense of pride when suddenly your neighbor’s dog starts barking its head off. Maybe at first you brush it off, figuring the dog would eventually give up, but it doesn’t. It keeps barking, and barking, and barking. For hours at a time, just barking at the top of its lungs every time your neighbor goes to work. You might try talking to your neighbor, but they simply shrug and say “dogs bark” and you’re left with your new home being constantly polluted by the sound of someone else’s choice of pet.
That may seem like an exaggeration, but that’s the reality many people live with, the inability to have peace and quiet in their own homes because someone else chose to get a dog. That’s why many cities have adopted noise ordinances specifically about incessant dog barking. It’s such a pervasive problem that there are multiple devices on the market aimed at getting someone else’s dog to shut up. And most of the owners are unbothered by the fact their pet is destroying someone else’s peaceful home.
It’s also nearly impossible to have a nice meal at a dog owner’s home. Most dog owners now refuse to put their dog away for company or even properly train the dog. That results in most of the dinner spent with a dog literally begging at the table (or worse, stealing from plates). Even if the owners do put the dogs away, many dogs just spend the entire time whining loud enough that it ruins the meal anyway.
Dogs Destroy the Environment
Aside from noise pollution, dogs also have an immense impact of the environment. We’ve had research for over a decade that dog ownership has a larger carbon footprint than an SUV, yet instead of being more responsible about dog ownership, we’ve seen an explosion in the dog population and dog consumerism.
In the past decade alone, the dog population has increased by 12 million. That additional population, coupled with the no kill movement and dog consumerism, has massively increased the burden on the planet and our environment. From emissions from all the additional manufacturing of dog goods to the extra needed resources to raise livestock for dog food, dog ownership greatly contributes to the climate change crisis. Yet we tend to ignore that issue because many dog owners wouldn’t give up owning a dog, even if it means the destruction of our planet.
But even putting overall carbon emissions aside, domestic dog ownership wreaks havoc on our ecosystems. Dog waste is a huge pollution problem everywhere. In the US alone, pet dogs produce up to 21.2 billions pounds of poop and a significant percentage of owners don’t pick up their dog’s poop (or weirdly, bag it but leave the bag). All of that waste ends up in our lakes, rivers, and water reserves polluting it.
Yet even when people do pick up their dog’s poop, it still leaves residue on the area where it was passing along all sorts of bacteria and parasites. One gram of dog poop can contain roundworm, hookworm, whipworm, parvo, salmonella, and a host of other really gross things. Even if you pick up the majority of the poop, the residue and microbes are still on the poop site. When you let your dog poop in a neighbors yard or a park, you’re exposing the children who will later play there to those contaminants. Dog urine is also known to kill plants and grass, so ideally dog owners should only use their own grass as their dog’s toilet, yet 99% of dog owners think their dog should be able to poop and pee everywhere, regardless of whether it’s ruining someone else’s property.
Aside from the carbon emission and poop pollution, domesticated dogs frequently attack and kill other animals causing huge issues in ecosystems. I’ve seen dogs in our local parks nature center (where dogs are prohibited in the first place) attacking and killing all manner of birds and rabbits, destroying the fragile ecosystem there. Unleashed dogs on beaches disrupt, trample, and kill baby chicks and nesting birds, decimating entire populations. And still, many dog owners insist on breaking regulations, bringing their dogs everywhere, and destroying natural habitats of other animals.
Dogs are Dangerous
Despite how many dog owners push the narrative that their dog is harmless and wouldn’t hurt a fly, dogs are dangerous animals. It’s just in their instincts to hunt, attack, and kill – no amount of training would make a dog completely harmless.
In the US alone, there are over 4 million reported dog attacks against humans alone. Over 900,000 of them require medical attention and about 50 of them result in human death every year. Many of these dogs are from loving homes and are considered family pets. Children under 5 are most at risk of being attacked, even with constant adult supervision. A lot of dog apologists will blame the children for these attacks, but domesticated animals should never attack humans, let alone children.
Many of these attacks are against babies in bouncy chairs and bassinets, literally doing nothing to the dog or posing any threat to the dog. Dogs have even ripped babies out of their owners arms to maul them to death. Denying the danger dogs pose to young children does nothing but perpetuate cycle of child deaths on the alter of dog culture and advocacy. Blaming parents and children for their own attacks is cold hearted when society continually pushes the narrative that dogs are loving, safe, and gentle creatures when they aren’t.
But the US is not the only place in the world with a dog attack problem. Between November 2017 and May 2018, 12 children were killed by a pack of strays a small village in northern India, 6 of them in one week alone. With millions of strays and few vaccines, India also has an epidemic of rabies, accounting for over a third of the world’s rabies deaths. With dogs posing a huge threat to the population there, the country faces so much backlash from dog’s rights groups for culling the strays, many of them “rescuing” the dogs and shipping them to the West.
The threat to human safety isn’t the only safety concern with dogs. Dogs have been known to attack wildlife, livestock, and other people’s pets. In some cases, dogs have broken into homes to kill other animals. Dogs frequently terrorize sheep when they’re left to roam or escape, resulting in many farmers having to euthanize entire flocks. Very rarely do they even eat any of the sheep, they simply attack and kill them for fun.
He doesn’t bite. He wouldn’t hurt a fly, he’s a good dog.
Every dog owner right before their dog attacks
There’s been this shift in society where the narrative is that everyone by default likes dogs and some people just can’t imagine why someone wouldn’t. A lot of this is propaganda by the shelter/rescue industry and the billion dollar a year pet industry. The simple fact is some people just don’t like dogs, and that’s ok. Some people have cynophobia, some people are allergic, and some people just don’t like them. And despite the narrative pushed currently, it’s perfectly reasonable to not like dogs.
If you don’t know who Mr. Bubz is, he’s the ill-tempered chihuahua mix that went viral in August 2018 for growling at his owner’s friend while being snuggled. Even if you don’t recognize the name, you may recognize the video.
Apparently, the instagram fame has gone to their heads in thinking basic laws and regulations do not apply to them or their terribly behaved dog.
In a now deleted instagram video, a man (probably James William Penland based on his voice and frequent appearances on Mr. Bubz’s account) can be seen being escorted out of a grocery store while pushing the poorly trained dog inside of one of the grocery carts. In the midst of being escorted out, you can hear him claim that the dog known for frequent growling and snarling is his “service dog”. A copy of the video can be seen below.
copy of now deleted instagram video of James William Penland claiming Mr. Bubz is his service dog
There are so many issues with doing this for anyone, let alone someone with over half a million followers. I’m not even sure if I can cover all of the problems here, but I’ll be damned if I don’t try.
One major issue here is the health and food safety violation, dogs and other animals do not at all belong in grocery store for a good reason (unless absolutely needed as a legitimate service dog). Despite the old myth dog lovers cling to, dogs are filthy. If living in that filth is your choice as a dog owner, more power to you, but you don’t get to spread that filth around at a place where food is sold. Likewise, having your dog actually in the cart where food is normally placed not only spreads normal dog germs in the store, but sets the next customer up to have their food covered in your dog’s fecal matter from it rubbing it’s anus on the cart.
Again, a dog owner might not mind that for them (as many of them french kiss their dogs anyway, even though their dog licks it’s own anus frequently), however the rest of the public does not deserve to have you contaminating their food just so you can bring your dog into the store. There are millions of people with dog allergies, they don’t deserve to have their groceries contaminated with your dog’s dander. There are many, many people with compromised immune systems, whether genetically or from certain treatments like chemo. The contamination from your dog and its anus could quite literally land them in the hospital or worse. Even if you don’t care if you contract MRSA or visceral leishmaniasis or another illness from your dog, the general public shouldn’t be exposed to that, especially not unsuspectingly when they’re just trying to buy food.
Not only is it absolutely disgusting to have your dog in a cart where other customers are going to be putting their food, it’s also illegal to falsely claim a non-service dog is a service dog. In the state of California (where Mr. Bubz and co live), it’s punishable by up to six months in jail and/or a maximum fine of $1,000. Yet even with strict laws and with self provided incriminating evidence, it’s doubtful that Penland will face any consequences outside of a small amount of social backlash. Very few people, if any, are ever prosecuted for faking a service dog and laws are largely symbolic because the honor system cemented by the ADA makes it almost impossible to truly incriminate someone for service dog fraud. Even with these laws, service dog fraud is still on the rise and the majority of fraudsters just don’t care.
Things are bad enough with fake service dogs and everyone bringing their dog wherever they want, it really doesn’t help to have an account with a major following faking a service dog just to try and push a terribly trained, ill-behaved dog into the grocery store. To do it is bad enough, to share it with your followers for laughs just encourages the practice. Maybe instead leave your dog at homewhere it belongs.
I’m sure a lot of people reading are wondering why on earth I would dedicate an entire blog to my dislike of dogs, dog culture, and other dog issues. Well, the short answer of it is I don’t like dogs, I hate dog culture and “pet parent” issues, and I needed to seem some sanity in this world when it comes to dogs (be the change and all that).
I know that I’m not alone in those feelings or views, however in recent times it’s became almost taboo to say you don’t like dogs, or worse, that you don’t think dogs should be treated as people. And if you live within a relatively normal bubble, it would seem absurd that dogs have become that much of an issue someone would really blog about it. But I want to show you, dear reader, the reality that we unfortunately live in today, express my reasoning for my tiny little blog, and hopefully help to reset society’s normal meter in some small fashion.
It used to be that you could say, “I’m not really fond of dogs” and most people would accept that as a normal personal opinion, just like you could no like any other thing in the world. Now, so many people have tied their own identities to dogs that anything less than enthusiastic love for dogs is infinitely tied into another person’s worth or morality. There are droves of people who will come out of the woodwork the minute you say anything slightly critical of the dog-centric modern culture, that dangerous dogs should be put down, or that dogs don’t belong everywhere. It’s become so normalized to put humans second to dogs in many groups that people mauled and killed by dogs not only see very little justice, but are blamed for their own deaths and hundreds of thousands sign petitions to save the dog(s) that had literally ripped a person to shreds. Certain groups of dog owners not only literally equate their dog to a human child, but insist that their dog is better than any human child. No one bats an eye anymore at people who proudly proclaim “I would save my dog over any person if I had to” and multiple pro-dog advocacy groups push the narrative that losing a dog is just as important as losing a human relationship. Before, people would be treated for mental illness for this amount of projection onto an animal; now, it’s not only completely normalized, but you’re an asshole if you don’t recognize the importance of their precious pooch and consider it an equal with children.
Mickey the Pit Bull from his flower crown photoshoot surrounded by the headlines from his disfiguring mauling of 4 year old Kevin Vicente.
I wish I were being hyperbolic about all of this, but these are things I’ve witnessed in my own life and I’ve seen the growing amounts of acceptance of dogs > humans in many, many circles. You can’t go on a dog mauling news report without someone wondering what the person did to cause their own death, then immediately post pictures of their own dog (usually accompanied by their children, particularly on mauling deaths of infants). I’ve lost friends over my general dislike of dogs, even though that dislike never affected them personally. More importantly, I love people and it’s a shame to not only equate, but to devalue the awesomeness of human complexity and relationships to dog ownership.
So, in order to be able to freely express my opinion on this growing epidemic, as well as just general dislike and other personal ramblings related to the issue of dogs, I’ve carved out this tiny space in the internet for such. If you’ve come to my tiny corner as a like minded individual or even a dog lover who just wants a break from some of the insanity of modern dog culture, welcome!
No Dogs on Mars 