Do responsible pet owners REALLY need a lobby group? Does any other Australian industry that contributes nearly $5 billion per year to the economy not work with government for fair policy? Is a $40 membership too much to ask? Or do we let Stuart make policy and influence public opinion. Gotta love Stuart; but will he IDENTIFY HIMSELF and help us create safe and pet-friendly communities that incorporate his need (or need to whinge)? That's our challenge to him - come forward citizen!We well know Stuart will find it very easy to complain and very hard to make change. HELP US FIND STUART! (And PS Stuart, humans are animals too.)
Stuart has left a new comment on your post "What is acceptable behaviour?":
Dogs ARE NOT part of the PUBLIC - they are animals and have no right to be on public transport of any kind. I will not share a train carriage or bus with a dog - they smell, they defecate and pee whenever and wherever they want, they can be vicious.
This campaign of yours comes from a position that assumes dogs are equal to humans - they are not - they are animals and there are far too many of them. Far too many owners are:
- irresponsible
- do not pick up their dogs poo
- do not obey regulations pertaining to keeping their dog on leads, which has personally caused me injury after hitting a dog not on a lead while cycling.
My local park is covered in dog poo but I get abused by owners if I dare to suggest they pick up their dogs poo or put it back on a lead. Dogs are not people - get a grip you lot and keep your dog on a short lead, off public transport, out of restaurants and cafes and pick up its poo.
Come on out Stuart. What is your local park and who are you? And will you work with us or are you simply a (simple) whiner? Don't ducks and other birds, possums, rats, koalas, kangaroos, cows, pigs, sheep and human babies poo/wee whenever or wherever they want or have I missed Stuart's training of these animals?
Come on out Stuart. What is your local park and who are you? And will you work with us or are you simply a (simple) whiner? Don't ducks and other birds, possums, rats, koalas, kangaroos, cows, pigs, sheep and human babies poo/wee whenever or wherever they want or have I missed Stuart's training of these animals?
5 comments:
stuart is obviously one of those irresponsible cyclists who in their all encompassing self importance has crashed into a dog as in his world not only dogs but anything apart from himself is an inconvenience. I bet he has omitted the people he has hit, such as i have experienced walking on pedestrian foot paths where cycles are banned. Unlike stuart and his ilk the idea of banning cycles due to the obvious threat they pose to human and dogs alike never occurred to me. I'd rather not know who he is, personally.
WE HEARD FROM STUART – BUT HE IS STILL HIDING AND NOT IDENTIFYING HIMSELF OR HIS POO-FILLED SUBURB. Stuart seems to need to attack people and not issues, and since we agree with most of what Stuart has to say (about issues, not people), here is an edited-for-tact version of his comments received today.
I ride on the road, not on the footpath and my accident occurred on a shared bicycle track in a park that is not an off-lead area. The owner of the dog called me an assh*le for complaining to her about having two large unleashed dogs in a clearly signposted on-leash park.
I am not hiding, your plea for me to out myself however will not be taken up as I fear you militant nut jobs would physically assault me.
As for "cockroaches, mosquitoes, politicians and flies", we are discussing dogs and their owners here but if you must know the excretions of all of them do not feature daily on the footpaths and parks in my area (well not in a size I can step in or smell) so I don't give them a second thought in that regard.
I am campaigning strongly in my area to stop the rising tide of dog poo and dog owners who seem to think their pets have more rights than me - they don't, won't and lots of people will fight long and hard to stop the further erosion of people's rights in favour of animals.
BARKING MAD EQUITY FOR PET OWNERS COMMENT: WE AGREE! Australia in intolerant of poo they can see or smell, or miss seeing and step in.
So responsible dog owners and minders pick-up ours and often that of others. Unfortunately, our Campaign for Cleaner Shoes is about to lose the database, but the page is still up here
http://barking-mad.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=70
for the moment.
If Stuart rides his bike on the road, why was he on a shared bicycle track? If he was on a road and a person let their off-leash dogs onto the road, well that is just plain stupid (of the dog minder).
We receive a lot of comments from cyclists claiming that a bike-ONLY path is the ONLY sensible choice. The example of the bike-path in Manly is often touted; it’s full of pedestrians and prams and parking meters with tourists baffled at the metre and having no idea they are standing in a bike path! Bikes and dogs don’t always work together.
It’s never nice to hear of these park bullying incidents – be they about any manner of public behaviour that doesn’t follow the bully’s point of view. I wish this dog owner didn’t offend you, but it happened and it’s over.
Yes – please – stop the tide of rising dog poo; we are a long way from tolerating it like some other countries that love their dogs, dog poo and all.
Barking Mad does not work for the rights of pets, nor do we favour a hierarchy of citizens’ rights. Pluralism, as mentioned by Bob Brown in the Euthanasia debate yesterday, is a foundation of Barking Mad. You don’t have to like dogs or dog owners, but you do need to share space with them and them with you. Snapping dogs, snapping at owners with annoying dogs, and dog lovers snapping at people who snap at them isn’t going to solve anything! See Tactics…
http://barking-madblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/as-with-other-social-justice-movements.html
Lastly, Stuart made a reference to dogs on public transport that was not only in error, it was not appropriate to publish.
The regulations (that's the bit that sits under the legislation) clearly set out the manner in which dogs, cats, birds and any other animal can be legally transported in NSW on buses and ferries.
stuart is campaigning against rising tides of his own paranoia. When horses and carriages were the dominant form of transport people had jobs cleaning up after them. Dogs are a dominant form of companion animal with greater positive utility than horses and carriages so why not pay people to clean up and police people not picking up after their dogsTo deny dogs and their owners an equitable share of public space will solve nothing. As the status quo is unsatisfactory people will continue to be forced to take matters into their own hands and ignore the restrictions that they find unworkable and so no matter how much stuart campaigns against equity the situation will remain the same. A no brainer to the average person. Certainly not a militant opinion. Obviously Stuart enjoys the tension and conflict that exists today between dog and non dog owners as his efforts are aimed at reproducing this to a greater scale. His efforts are really pointless and only a disproportionate response to an otherwise reasonable and humane endeavour, nothing more nothing less. The explicit paranoia that his comments display in terms of notions of rising tides of dog waste and animal rights encroaching on his, indicates a personal disposition rather than a rational argument. The question needs to asked then, should we take him seriously? Does someone who is debating in these terms about a public issue have anything to contribute at all? Should our communities be beholden to an individuals neuroses? In light of the fact that we are talking about equity for humans, welfare for humans and other animals and doing so with view to improving things i think not. Stuart and his alarmist ilk will never be satisfied so with out wishing to polarize any further the already diametrically opposed camps i suggest we ignore him and listen to people who are opposed in part or full to greater equity for animal owners that have a rational reason and interest in finding a solution.
I happen to think Stuart sounds like a perfectly reasonable, intelligent man. I am a dog owner and a very responsible one at that but i think people have every right to call for higher standards if they are experiencing any adverse effects from dog owners. Don't we all have the right to complain? I have had very unpleasant attacks from dog owners myself when i mention anything (in a very friendly way) at my local park.
We should not ATTACK Stuart with stupid slanders but hear the frustration of someone who is saying there is work to be done.
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