I know I’m offending some of my friends here, but I have to do it. Walking your dog off the leash in the middle of the city is about the stupidest thing you can do. Okay, okay we get it: your dog is the most amazing, well behaved dog on the planet. She doesn’t mess with other dogs, she never strays far away from you, and she most certainly never wanders out into the street. Except that she does. You know, just that once. The nature of the freak accident is that it’s that one-in-a-million shot. It’s the day you should’ve played the lottery instead. It’s the perfectly timed moment when the incredibly cautious bicyclist’s chain snaps, causing him to fall in front of the usually cautious truck driver who happens to swerve for a split second while changing radio stations, then whammo! and it’s all done.
There are a lot of reasons to not walk your dog off leash, and catastrophic accident is just the most extreme case. You simply don’t want to allow it to happen. You’d never forgive yourself. A more important reason not to walk your dog off leash is all the trouble you cause everyone else. Sorry to say, but there are still people in this city who are terrified of dogs. They have the right to walk down the street and not have to encounter even the friendliest of their nightmares trotting along untethered. There are also other, law-abiding dog owners who have the right to walk their dog down the street without it having to encounter a dog off-leash, causing their dog to lose its mind and composure. True, everyone should have a dog as mild mannered and well behaved as yours; but, as long as they have their dog on leash, they have a legal and moral right to not have their dog disturbed by yours, who isn’t.
I see the off-leash city dog as some attempt at a personal declaration of freedom. It’s the furry equivalent of buying a red corvette to staunch your midlife crisis. (Feel free to conduct the rest of your Freudian analysis here.) But, little red corvettes are fodder for Prince songs and sniggers into our sleeves as you cruise by. Dogs off leash are not. Deal with your psychic distress some other way. Not at the peril of your dear one, nor to the chagrin of others.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
I agree with almost all you say. I agree that off leash in the city is pretty dangerous. Except that I think sometimes one likes walking one's dog off leash because of that feeling of mutual trust and synchronicity that can happen between dog and human. In such a case, I think not of a "corvette moment," but of a moment of deep and quiet understanding. Of course, the risk is there. With our old dog we used to go off the leash in a side, less trafficked street, always putting the leash on afain before getting to the avenues. But with our new, young and rowdier dog we would NEVER dare it in the city even in a very quiet street.
ReplyDelete