[Salone]

My opinions may not be popular here, but stick with me.

First off, to people who are allergic to dander, well...there's this thing called Benadryl. It's cheap, allows you to suck it up and stop leeching the joy that animals bring out of everyone else's lives. Not everyone has to cater to you and your special snowflake tendencies. The world is cruel, but animals are not. Don't make it worse.

On the flipside, I absolutely abhor people who just take their pets with them everywhere they go. Service animals are excluded from this next bit, but pets are like genitals: Yeah sure it's lovely to have them, but start taking them out in public everywhere you go and no one is going to like you for it.

In today's 'everything must be insured and protected' world, animals are an unknowable variable. Something can always set off a dog who 'doesn't bite' or cause an accident. Plus, most public places and stores are made for people, and need to follow certain rules that animals can violate. Hygiene alone is one. I worked at a pharmacy, I didn't need flea-ridden animals who could have anything coming in. This was a place of medicine, not the barnyard vet clinic. Just because your little yappy rat dog is cute to you doesn't mean everyone else needs to see it. Leave it at home. It has no concept of time, it can stand to be away from you.

The exception here is proper shelter. If you're traveling with an animal and need to go somewhere, I understand bringing it in. An animal should not be left in a car for any circumstance, no matter the weather. So...as much as I hate seeing people showcase their dogs that cost more than I make in a month, or the more appropriately adorable muttbags, I'd rather them be in a public place or store than trapped in a vehicle. I love animals too much to leave them in a position of possible harm.

Now for service dogs, well...did you know it's really, really easy to buy a harness for your dog that says 'service animal' on it? A lot of people near these parts will just plop them on their animal so they can take them in wherever they go. Which admittedly, paints a bad picture for real service animals everywhere.

So yeah I have this awkward mix of loving animals but hate seeing them paraded around by their owners in public. Not the animals themselves, but just the owners.

Screw those owners.

Therapy animals or anything similar to that in a home is fine with me. Keep whatever. It's just the public bits that get me.