Why I have had it with entitled dog owners | Arwa Mahdawi

You know the types – they let their hound jump all over you and don’t clear up after them. Bring on their poo-nishment ...

I am a dog person. In fact, I’m a self-proclaimed crazy dog lady; there is not much I wouldn’t do for my scruffy little chihuahua-terrier mix called Rascal. That said, I’ve had it with a certain breed of dog person. You probably know the type. They assume you will automatically love it when their slobbery companion jumps on you. They say, “He’s friendly!” when their enormous hound lunges at your tiny animal. And, most egregiously, they don’t pick up after their pooch. Or, if they do, they inexplicably discard the bag on to the pavement or a tree, expecting some sort of poop fairy to magically clean up after them.

The shituation seems to have got worse in recent years. Perhaps because the pandemic simultaneously caused a boom in pet ownership and seems to have made large swathes of people forget their manners. A survey from earlier this year found that nearly half of American adults (47%) say the way that people behave in public these days is ruder than before the Covid-19 pandemic.