Hello, yes, I am ranting again. I swear I'm not an angry person; I just have a lot of pet peeves. This one taking the term "pet peeve" quite literally. Today I'm going to be ranting about something that's annoyed me for quite some time and is becoming increasingly prevalent, at least in my hometown of Jupiter, FL: dogs being everywhere.
A very important disclaimer: I do not hate dogs. I love dogs more than I can say. What I hate is dogs in grocery stores, restaurants, malls, etc.
I'm sure you've seen them. You'll be walking around the grocery store, trying to just get your bananas, when you see a stroller. "Oh, a baby!" you foolishly think to yourself. But just as you're about to peek in you see...a rat? Oh, no, that's a lap dog. It's hard to tell the difference these days.
Now, very important disclaimer no. 2: I do not have an issue with actual, legitimate service dogs, by any means. If you need a dog for medical or emotional reasons, that's a completely different animal--no pun intended. I'm talking about the people who fake a service dog, because that's just completely trashy.
These people have one key identifier: they are all too keen to tell you how it's so easy to fake the papers online or how simply you can get a therapist to sign off on it, even if you don't need it. I don't know why these people like to fess up to their crimes with such abandon and carelessness, but they nearly all do.
This is a problem for so many reasons.
1) You are essentially faking a disability, which is one of the tackiest things you can do, in my opinion. By straight up lying about your "service animal" you are taking away legitimacy from people who actually need them. You also are discounting all the hard work that goes into actually training one of these animals. Your dog that is peeing all over the floor of Publix is NOT properly trained and should not be associated with these highly trained animals.
2) People have allergies and can't healthily be around dogs in public this often. I have family members who cannot breathe around animals. If you unnecessarily bring your dog places it should not be, when it is not a service animal, you are putting people like my family members in danger, for no reason.
3) It's unsanitary as hell. I do not want your animal in a restaurant or grocery store when it is not highly trained. I have seen dogs poop in on the floors of a grocery store before, okay? Keep your animals away from my food. They are pets, yes, but they are also still animals. They're not the cleanest beings ever.
I understand you want to take your dogs out and I know dogs like to go on excursions. But trust me, your dog does not want to go to the grocery store with you. Your dog wants to go to the beach, the park, literally anywhere else that a non-service animal belongs.
This has been a PSA. Thank you so much.
