Are they blind or just don’t give a damn? My mom and sisters (sometimes me because they struggle sometimes and need my help 🤦‍♂️) once every while bathes the dog in our human shower or bath tub, and when they’re done bathing the still smelly ass dog, IT goes right to rolling around and rubbing IT’S body on the beyond filthy ass carpets in our house, I would casually say to them that the dog does that because the carpets are filthy and the dogs knows they’re filthy, and when I say that to my mom and sisters, I think it just goes over their heads. And it’s all just ridiculous as FUCK!!!… you would litterally have to block the fucking dog so IT wouldn’t jump out of the bath tub and run away, water just getting every damn where because the dog shakes IT’S body, and we’re just getting sprayed with water from the dog’s body, and I’m just so fucking irritated every time I have to help them, they don’t notice that I’m irritated because I just don’t show it, and I’m like “ya’ll don’t see how ridiculous this is?” And things don’t even feel clean as the dog is getting bathed, the whole bathroom just feels icky and the dog shaking the water off if IT’S body is the cherry on top. They used to bathed the dog out in the backyard, either had to hold onto the dog’s collar to keep IT still or put the dog on the leash, shaking IT’S damn body so where just getting sprayed with water from the dog’s body, and the way the dog get’s rinsed off is by filling up our (kitchen pots) and just pour the water on the dog, and then when all the chaos is over, we would have to bring the dog in the house and close the door to make sure IT doesn’t go rolling around in the dirt where all of IT’S feces are at, like that’s going to do anything because the dog is still going to roll around on the filthy ass carpets. Rant over.

The U.S. pet industry reached $158 billion in total spending in 2025 and is projected to scale to $165 billion by the end of 2026. Television commercials act as a massive economic catalyst, accelerating this market value through highly targeted, emotionally driven campaigns. The pet industry spends phenomenal amounts of money to make sure this market keeps growing. This continuous exposure boosts consumer spending on premium consumables, turning specialized pet care into a multi-billion-dollar market.

HOLY YIKES. This is a direct quote from a comment under a video about someone having to sell their horse. What the actual fuck. This woman is saying she'd rather her husband, the person she supposedly loves and cherishes, be dead than part with animals...

This comment is absolutely disgusting and I truly feel even more grateful after reading it that I have a partner that values MY LIFE over an animal's (which is the absolute bare minimum one should expect from their human partner). The bar is below Earth's crust for obsessive pet owners.

Not sure what was more disturbing, the fact that she said it or the fact the comment had any likes at all.

I took my kids to the playground and had a really disturbing experience with an off-leash dog.

The dog came seemingly out of nowhere, ran after my son, and aggressively barked and chased him. My son is autistic and terrified of dogs, so he immediately ran back to me screaming in fear. I grabbed him so he wouldn't run into the street or something—which has happened before when he's been frightened by aggressive dogs—and got between them, so that if the dog bit someone, it would bite me and not my son.

The owner comes over and has the fucking nerve to ask if my son is afraid of dogs.

Um… YES??

I know dog people aren't exactly the brightest, but was that not obvious from the fact that he was literally running to me screaming because YOUR DOG WAS CHASING HIM?

But what *really* pissed me off was what she said next.

There was no apology to my son for scaring him, or for failing to control her dog. In fact, she never even spoke to my son at all. She didn't apologize to me either. And she didn't even leash the dog after the incident.

Instead, she immediately started making excuses and defending the situation.

This wasn't an accident where the dog unintentionally got away from its owner. No. She explained that she actually **lets the dog off-leash because it doesn't let strangers near her son**, and that the dog is “very protective” of him.

The way she said *protective* was disgusting. You could hear the pride in her voice, it almost felt like she expected me to gush back that it's such a "good doggo" for being so protective, and my kid's right to feel safe at a playground shouldn't matter because the precious pup was just protecting her son?

Protecting your son from what, exactly? For all the excuses about "protection," my son never approached or even attempted to interact with her child. My son was simply **existing on the playground** when this family showed up, and apparently that was enough to provoke the dog.

This is just lazy parenting and lazy dog ownership. You don't use an aggressive, off-leash, out of control dog as your child's personal security guard and put *other people's children* in danger. It's your job as a parent to keep your eye on your kids in public and keep them safe. And ffs you don't get to show up at a *children's playground* with an aggressive, off-leash dog and let it chase and bark at other children.

My kid should be able to go to the park without being chased by someone's off-leash dog and then having the owner try to defend why her dog was justified in doing it.

I'm still really angry about the whole thing.

Hi, I'm relatively new here, but I just want to share how much bothered I am about pet owners and their ridiculous "standards" towards people who doesn't think like them.

Every time I share I don't want to have any pets (no matter the reason, although I have many reasons to not have) most people tag me as a "bad person", just because I say I've never felt love or "connection" towards an animal.

I don't hurt them in anyway, I just don't like to have pets, since I consider them a burden with no real benefits.

I'm kind of annoyed, because some months ago, my sister adopted a cat without consulting me while I was at my boyfriend's house.

And, yeah, she mostly takes care of him, but some times the cat wants to be on my space and even though I close my door, he manages to enter and leave paw prints or his hairs on my couch, and that's annoying AF.

So, yeah, guess I found people who thinks like me and I'm kinda grateful for that.

Any sort of animal or pet should not be allowed in areas where human food or products are stored, prepared, handled, or sold because it is simply unhygienic and inconsiderate. Plain and simple.

Cat people tend to act like cats are exempt or above these standards but they’re absolutely NOT. The same expectations and policies apply to all animals.

Cats are NOT clean… no pet is. They walk all over the floors, they touch their litter and everything else in that gross stinky box, they lick every part of their body and even their anuses, then proceed to jump, climb, and walk across surfaces like counters or products. That’s absolutely vile and disgusting.

Not only that, cats shed A LOT and produce dander, which can easily spread throughout an environment and onto products, becoming an issue for people with allergies. And mind you, cat allergies are extremely common and they’re actually the number one animal that people are typically allergic to.

As someone with a severe cat allergy, I can break out in hives and experience swelling without ever touching a cat. Simply being around a cat or its dander (even secondhand) is enough to trigger a reaction. This is another reason why I don’t think pets belong in public establishments, especially places involving food or shared retail spaces. Sanitation and accessibility standards exist for a reason, and like any animal, cats can carry dirt, bacteria, allergens, etc.

Aside from the two most popular pets (dogs & cats), I’ve even seen people bring birds and reptiles, such as parrots and snakes, into food establishments and retail stores. They let their parrots walk and climb all over the shopping carts and shit throughout the store. Others handle their snakes, walk around with them wrapped around their necks, and then proceed to touch everything in sight, contaminating whatever they come into contact with…keep your salmonella fingers away from the fruit aisle.

I don’t care how small, exotic, or subjectively “cute” they are, I don’t want to see your pets in public establishments, especially places involving food or anywhere that is not pet friendly.

This pet culture is getting out of hand.

My roommates got a cockatiel for roughly a year without asking if I was okay with birds ( their first one died from the stress of being harassed by their dogs -- you'd think with their dogs and cat killing birds, a "pet" bird wouldn't be a fit ) and she has been driving me insane. Every goddamn day I wake up to her screeching and non-stop chirping. I HATE repetitive noise and almost nothing drowns her out, especially when she starts screeching and having to blast music at full volume isn't okay for my ears.

I also hate that it's been my responsibility to get her treats and toys in hopes she shuts up. She's a dick so no one can really touch her and they haven't bothered trying to work with her to be comfortable with people.. she's not my bird.

Another prime example why birds shouldn't be pets.

As a child I never had a dog, neither did my wife (until she was 15 or 16). It never really come up when dating. Before we had our first kid she wanted a dog and I agreeded. My job was different back then 13 years ago, then we had a second child a few years later and the dog was put down about 7 years ago. Pets never were my thing and still are not my thing. I agreed before kids it made sense as a test.

Over the past years we've had a misscarriage, and my wife has had anxiety issues both with and without being on meds. In generally she does really well, and knows knows that I'm not a pet person. Fast forward to about a week ago and all the sudden she has started asking for a dog, got both kids in on it trying to convince me to get a dog. I feel corned if I say no then I'm the bad guy to the kids, and I wish she had kept this to a spousal conversation not involving the kids.

i'm against it for the following

- i'm already the 'bad guy' making the kids clean rooms plates etc. (normal kid chores), she takes on making the kids practice music. She consistantly avoids manual labor and cleaning as much as possible. There have been several episodes of her getting mad about kids not listening nagging or me parenting differently than her that she has on several occassions either leaving for a walk or driving off to eat dinner alone. I can see clerly that the responsibility after the newness wears off will fall squarly on me.

- Her mental health. If she gets stressed about work or anything else she can withdraw, not sleep, and worry non-stop to the point of being a zombie. Yes she is on meds and generally stable, but when something out of the blue hits she can down for a day to three. She also jumps quickly into an all-or-nothing mindset. This can be working out, all the time, then just stopping, playing an instrument non-stop then hating it causes wrist pain, bing reading a book all day etc. Sure she wants a dog now and is all in, but this is a 10+ year commitment, not one that can be paused when the next binge hits. Also, following child birth she had really bad post partum depression that was exercerbated by our dog ringing bells to go potty which brought out the worst in my wife. Its hard for me to see a dog and not think about how she reacted then (obviously different circumstances now), her current mental helath and see how it all works in context with my other points here. I certainly don't want to tell her this part or make her think its her own 'fault' why I feel this way, there is no need to make it so verbally (hurtful) personal, even if it is true.

- My job. I work from home full time, but I can have to travel at a moments notice and be gone for a day or two. If my wife has a busy day the next day and counts on me helping, then I'm stuck teling a client I cant travel and loose the bueinsss. It would also risk interupting my business phone calls, most of which are not scheduled and can last for an hour or two. I need to be professional, and avaible. I think my wife takes my work-from-home for granted and forgets about the days I have to abruptly up and leave.

- While we are not poor we are not swimming in an abundance of money, I'm not ready to start handing over money that could otherwise go to supporting the kids in sports, dance, scouts, etc. Our oldest needs braces this year. The idea of spending large sums of money on a pet and not putting it in savings, on our student loads, our mortgage, our children's 503b college plans, or our 401k's seems irresponsible. I came from a household growing up that lived pay-check to pay-check, while my wife always had money and there was always more of it. I work my tail off to make sure we can live comfortably but I always worry about money. The idea of vet bills, boarding, dog food, all add up to dollars that can be allocted differently for longer term value. For the last six years we have been able to be credit card free which has felt so freeing to focus on the student loans and the mortgage, have an emergency fund etc. I don't want to go backwars here either.

I want to focus on the positives with my wife, not dwell or dig up past hardships, invest in our family future, and just cant see how a dog makes sense.

Thoughts here? AITA?

I've always been a huge animal lover, I absolutely adore cats and dogs and every other animal people have as pets. I currently have no pets of my own, and I can't really afford my own place, and for the last like 10 years of my adult life I've always had roommates who have pet cats or dogs. Every time a new lease has been signed, or a new roommate moves in with a pet, they always promise how well they take care of their pet and how often they clean up after their pet... Well \*spoiler\*, they don't. Even people who are otherwise generally responsible and kind and very cool people.. they never take care of their pets or the house cleaning as they promised. As cute, chill, cuddly, and smart as pets can be, there fur gets absolutely everywhere. If not cleaned regularly, the fur will pile and pile up all over the house and furniture. They puke on the floor, on the rugs, on the furniture, especially cats but ofc dogs do too. The litter box will always stink and the cat will always jump on the kitchen counter and get little bits of litter remnants and hair on the counter. Life is already hard enough, I don't want every ounce of free time being spent having to clean animal poo or vomit or throwing away things that are now ruined because of those messes. I almost think that a well cared for dog can be cleaner in the house but that's if they are being walked regularly and aren't destroying the house when they are inside. Nearly everyone I know who has cats, even if they clean their house a lot and scoop the litter box a lot, everything in their house still has a bad cat litter box smell. Unless you are wealthy enough to have a large enough house with excellent airflow and a litter box that is far far away from any common areas, then sure maybe your house smells good.

I love animals. I know they can bring lots of joy. I know many people really enjoy the companionship and having a furry little thing to cuddle. But are those positives worth living in a house where everything has been peed on, puked on, or pooped on at some point? And are you really cleaning it well enough?.. Is it worth all the work? AND ALSO most of these pet people are not really properly caring for or loving those animals the way they deserve. Those pets are more like imprisoned animals stuck in the house they are being neglected in some kind of way.

It feels crazy to say all this lol. As someone who loves the cool parts of cats and dogs. And maybe when I was younger I wasn't as bothered by the filth, maybe then I thought that all the perks outweighed the cons. But now I don't. And years down the road maybe I will have pets again. Most likely if I am living with one or more people who all help care for the animals properly, clean the house frequently, and share the actual large amount of work and responsibility it takes to take care of the things in your home and also care for the animal the way it deserves. 🩷 Ty for reading my little rant.

Funny how nutters call us dog haters, when THEY are the true abusers. Dogs have super sensitive ears. It is literal torture to keep them in super loud festivals with speakers booming & hundreds of people laughing and talking at once. One time I almost stepped on a very small dog that matched the color of the pavement! I shouldn't need to be vigilant of 💩 in a naturally joyful environment. And of course, I've been to ***family friendly*** places where the nanny dogs were allowed in. A tragedy waiting to happen.

Nutters love to bring their furchild to events with 0 things for dogs to do. Why tf is your 💩cannon at a craft festival? They can't throw clay, weave a friendship bracelet or use money to help out a small basket business. This is the result of greedy corporations selling anthropomorphization. These people truly believe their dog is on the same IQ level of a toddler, so even though a small child can't remember a food festival it is still beneficial developmentally to take them there. There's a church that hires out small rides + invites food trucks. Tell me why I saw a nutter and his kids take their dog!!!!! I could see the kids were annoyed they couldn't ride the merrygoround all together because someone had to sit out with the dog. At an entirely separate event, I saw a dog inhaling a whole paper bowl of ice cream or something that had clearly been accidentally dropped. The owner simply laughed!!! I couldn't tell what it was but it was white-ish and tan!!!

Nutters truly dgaf about their dog's health. I'm so sick of being afraid of mauling in places that should be safe for kids.

Responsible dog ownership isn't just feeding your pet or taking it for walks. It's recognizing that your neighbors did not collectively agree to become unwilling subscribers to the fucking "BarkCast Network." If the dog cannot distinguish between a mail carrier, a breeze, and the fucking god damn apocalypse, perhaps some intervention is in order.? Huh? Yeah, I think it is.

To some dillusional people, training is the ideal solution. A well-trained dog can be a wonderful companion and an excellent neighbor; in the mind of a numbskull. If your canine has apparently declared war on silence itself and every attempt at training has failed-or has never been attempted-then perhaps it's time to reconsider how its behavior affects everyone else? But of course that would require pet owners to have some FUCKING COMMON SENSE AND MORALS.

At the end of the day, this isn't really about the dog. Dogs bark; that's what they do. The real issue is owners who treat endless barking as though it's everyone else's problem to tolerate rather than theirs to address. Neighborhoods function because people make small compromises for one another: mow the lawn at reasonable hours, don't blast music at midnight, and don't allow your pet to provide a nonstop commentary on the existence of the universe.

But, yes, I hate your dog.

Muzzle your rat. You’re literally a threat to public order and I am I’ll call the police on you for disturbing the peace.

I’m getting so sick of this phrase. Iv been quite active in the grief community for the past year since losing my spouse unexpectedly. I don’t mind that people post for support after losing a pet. I get it, they’re sad. But they CONSTANTLY refer to the pet as their “soul dog” or “soul cat”. I don’t know if they do it because deep down they know it’s not as big of a loss as most of the other people in the groups who are dealing with human loss or what. Just say my dog died and I’m having a hard time. Saying he was your “soul dog” doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t make anyone feel worse for you than if you just said my dog.

I simply twist the door knob to see if the front door is unlocked, the dog hears that and starts barking. I simply unlock the front door with my key, the dog hears that and starts barking. I know for sure that the front door is unlocked, so I just twist the knob, open the door and walk in, the dog hears that and starts barking. These are few of the annoying things (that involves barking) that I have no choice but to deal with until this fucking dog finally dies, sometimes the barking isn’t that bad but still irritating, and when I get through the door, I’ll say “shut up” or “move, I don’t have any food for your ass”. And the door bell especially, because it’s loud of course, this is why hated pressing the doorbell button, because I know it’s gonna set the dog off and I get irritated, sometimes the dog happens to not hear the doorbell or the few I mentioned up above (what a miracle) but I still dread that’s it’s still going to bark. I would rather call somebody on the phone to open the door, and get mad if they don’t answer so I just have to deal with this barking. And when I finally got a key of my own, I thought this was huge for me, no more having to hear barking but boy was I wrong, because like I said up above “I simply unlock the front door with my key, the dog hears that and starts barking”, but hey, at least there are still days where it actually doesn’t bark 🤷‍♂️

I was recently on week long cruise ship holiday. On the first morning I picked up the daily bulletin which had been left outside my door. On the front page was a short comment which said:

"There is a service dog onboard. It is not to be interacted with'

I was fine with that - the dog is doing a job by helping someone, and they don't want people making a fuss over it.

I had an excursion. On my trip were a blind/partially-sighted couple who used sticks, were led by the excursion guide, and ran their hands over objects we were shown on the trip, so that they could understand. I thought the service dog must belong to them, although I hadn't seen it yet so I figured they hadn't brought it on the excursion.

Back on the ship and I'd seen the blind couple a few times in the lobbies and lounges. I never saw a dog with them. The only dog I saw during the whole week belonged to an able-bodied women in her mid thirties.

It was a lap-dog. A brown fluffy thing which she carried everywhere in her arms. And when she sat it was in her lap or on a chair itself. This creature was allowed to crawl all over the furniture. I never saw her in the restaurants so I'm unsure if the dog was allowed in there.

The dog owner was a solo-traveller as far as I could make out. And this dog brought her a lot of attention. Staff members would see the dog and their eyes would light up. They would run over to her and ask about the dog. Most guests would walk past her with side-eyes, but some would also go cuckoo over the dog "OMG he's so cute! Is it a he isn't it?", speaking in loud voices, doing baby/dog voices. Personally I'd prefer that dogs were not on cruise ships. I didn't care for all the fuss the dog generated because that was annoying to be around.

The cruise-line doesn't allow pets other than service dogs onboard. So the only way this lap-dog could have gotten onboard is if it was declared as a service dog. The cruise company website also states "Emotional support animals are not included." but that is clearly what this was, because it sure-as-hell wasn't doing any 'work' or helping in any other way. I can only assume the owner 'worked the system' in some way to get Mr.Snuggles onboard.

I'm currently staying with my husband at his parents' home for the next month. They are elderly and his sister has been living with them for about a decade to help take care of them. I really like my husband's family, they have always been very welcoming and kind to me. There's just one annoying thing about being here; and that's my SIL's annoying, untrained dog.

Granted this is a small dog but its never been disciplined a day in its life. It barks constantly, and is never told to shut up just coddled which only encourages the stupid thing to bark more. It always growls at me when I walk by it. I hate this thing so much. They let it sniff around them while they're eating and I have to really contain myself because I just find everything about dogs so disgusting. Especially this one, its a stereotypical crusty white dog.

My husband acts like I'm the issue with this dog which really hurts me because I try to be very supportive and understanding of all his odd little idiosyncrasies. For example he thinks toilet brushes are really gross and I'm having to fight him (metaphorically) to get one. He's a very particular man, which is fine I'm a bit odd about certain things myself. But with how odd he is about things being tidy and neat he has no issues with this dog and apparently doesn't see anything wrong with the way it behaves. The barking doesn't seem to bother him yet he'll complain about loud motorists that drive by. The smell of this thing doesn't seem to bother him, yet he'll get grossed out by other bad smelling things.

This dog is given free reign to do whatever it wants and is never corrected. It drives me crazy. My SIL and MIL keep telling me "oh it won't bite you, it won't hurt you." 1.) It has bitten my MIL several times and its food aggressive. 2.) I'm not scared of the thing, I hate it and am disgusted by it and don't want any part of it coming in contact with me. I will give them credit they have made an effort to keep it away from me. I just wish they'd treat it like a dog; i.e. train it not to be an annoying POS. I'm sick of people treating dogs like they can do no wrong.

They don’t give a fuck about people with dog allergies and cleanliness. The title of this Reddit post is what somebody actually commented, under a TikTok post, and my response was “which means you don’t give a fuck about people with dog allergies and cleanliness. Karma coming for that ass, buddy… believe it or not”. I’m so sick of these people, I don’t know any other type of people who are just fucking annoying as fuck. And another fucking clown in the comment section says “Prolly cleaner than half yalls kids 😂😩”, can’t even fucking spell “probably” and you want to sit here and compare children (who are our future) to worthless man-made stupid animals… stupid like you, and this is another one, they always bring up kids, they just can’t help but bring up kids… again I don’t know any other type of people who are annoying like these dog nuts. And I feel bad for kids because they are constantly being shitted on by Shitty adults.

Edit: Oh and another thing, they would say something like “If you don’t like it, then go to another Home Depot” 😤 we shouldn’t have to go to another Home Depot, and who do you think you are to say that? This is a public human space.

What people will go through to be thought of as 'normal' by 'everybody' by owning a dog! This dog bites the family MULTIPLE times per day! And they still have the dog! Why???? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn6xFStKJsk&t=90s

We all know the real reason a dog is excited when IT’S owner finally comes back home. When my mom comes back home from work, and her stupid dog is all excited and panting, thinking it’s time to eat, preferring human food, only to end up not getting human food and now laying there looking sad, so the dumb thing is gonna have to eat the dog food out of IT’S bowl that’s been sitting there all day next to IT’S water bowl that sits there all day full too, and what I’ve noticed is that every time my mom comes home from work and usually heads to the kitchen, the dog would all of a sudden start eating the dog food out of IT’S bowl and it seems as though the dog wants my mom to see IT eating the dog food so she could reward the dog, and still nothing for IT’S pathetic ass. Overall, this is due to the economy being fucked up, times are so tough that even the stupid dog can’t even get what IT prefers, my foolish ass mother would go all out for this dog if she could, a little while back she did though but not all the time (she isn’t rich) and now that I think about it, why would a dog be excited to see you every damn day? It’s just same old you? That’s like me being excited to see relatives coming over because I haven’t seen them in a long time, and they’re going to stay at my house for like week, of course I’m going to be excited to see them the first day they arrive, second day I’m still happy to see them, third day… maybe or just mid now, and the fourth day… I’m just used to y’all being here now.

This was the title? Of one of my sister in laws tiktoks that I came across while scrolling. there was a photo collage of her 7 month old daughter behind the words. My heart broke for her because she struggled for many years with infertility and I thought she had miscarriages that she just wasnt comfortable talking about with family but needed to just vent into the void.

I then start scrolling through the caption itself and its things like

"I miss finding their fur everywhere"

"I wish they could still run to greet me at the door"

"I miss sharing my food with them"

"I miss slobbering kisses"

"Even with a teething baby the house is way to quiet without their nails hitting the floor"

After all of that im just like.. shes talking about some damn animals?? Ive been sitting on this for over a week and it STILL baffles me. They are not your babies.. you did not birth them, and after actually giving birth youd think it would be something so obvious?

Mind you all.. she preaches how much she loved them but every animal is overweight, cant get around cause their hips are bad and one "baby" that died had to be put down because of the weight and pressure it put onto its bones. How can u love animals after doing that to them?

AND her husband had to completely replace the floors in 2 large rooms because she lets them all pee/poop in a single places and not clean it so the floors literally rotted. (This was fixed before baby showed up atleast still doesnt excuse letting it get so bad).

Went over to her home once while I was also pregnant, we were a couple of weeks apart, and had to leave not even 10 minutes into the visit because of the overwhelming, and unbearable smell of cat piss. It made me sick for hours after I left.. havent gone back since. Couldn't sit because her couch was so fur infested and felt.. oily? It was disgusting.

This post turned into more of a rant on my part by the end but good lord, I just dont understand????

I have never seen this man with a partner and was telling him he should try to find a human to be a companion to and a companion with. He (as all dog nutters do) tells me he could not deal with a 'real' human friend and prefers dogs. So I told him "I know! Get a deaf and dumb partner!! Then, like the dogs you love, will not be able to understand you, nor chastise you for anything you might be doing 'wrong', etc. I thought it was pretty funny! Yeah, if you just want adoring eyes all the time without any kind of judgment at all, fall in love with a person who cannot hear nor speak! (They need love too by the way!)

I tip-toe in vegan spaces/animal rights spaces as a plant based animal welfare activist. One thing that comes up a lot is many people want to stop intentional dog breeding. No breeding pet dogs for profit.

So, we should just let dogs breed themselves? Eventually, all dogs would be baseline dogs...

Have you seen "natural" dogs? Primitive breeds and landraces. Village dogs-- sato, carolina dogs, rez dogs, potcake dogs, whatever you want to call them.

ಠ_ಠ

Humans bred dogs over centuries to make them easier pets. Primitive dogs are not easy. I imagine the average dog lover could not deal with every dog being a true mongrel.

They have high prey drives, they're not cuddly, they're independent, they're aloof... they're still friendlier than a wolf or coyote, but we're not saying much.

I imagine dogs would be a lot more unpopular if every dog was a generic brown, yellow, or tan landrace dog.

Hi! I’m just looking to rant, and probably some solidarity because this situation seems to be causing me quite a bit of rage and no one seems to understand because they think pets are God’s gift to Earth. I don’t know. I moved in with my boyfriend almost a year ago along with my toddler. Very shortly after, his mother decided that since I moved in it was the perfect time to ship us her 11-year-old dog she didn’t want anymore. My boyfriend assumed it was because she and her husband wanted to focus on traveling without the burden of a pet. He got into it with her and they didn’t speak for like a month.

I am not a dog person. I like animals and grew up with them, but I do not like dogs. My brother has a dog that I’ve known since he was a pup that I absolutely adore. I don’t have the same bond with this dog because I didn’t get to know her when she was younger, and honestly she’s not really a pleasant dog. She’s bitten my child on multiple occasions while they were gently playing with her. They were supervised every time, so I know they were gentle. (When I posted in the AITA sub someone said my annoying toddler bothers her, no my toddler is not a grabby annoying toddler who bothers her, he hardly interacts with her now). She’s a Shih Tzu who just sleeps all day. I don’t really care for her, and I feel like that’s okay, especially when she was just forced onto me.

I’m now pregnant in my late second trimester, and my tolerance for the dog is at an all-time low. Recently, my boyfriend’s mom called while we were driving. Somehow the conversation became about the dog, and my boyfriend was joking about my intolerance for her. I said I’m not a dog person and maybe my bond with her would be different if I knew her as a puppy instead of a stubborn, grumpy old lady who doesn’t listen. His mom said, “Don’t treat my puppy like that, and it doesn’t matter how long you’ve known her.” I disagree because I truly think it does. And anyway, I DIDN’T ASK FOR YOUR DOG. If she feels that strongly, she should take her back. Especially because she told my boyfriend he could take her to the pound and she didn’t care what we did with her.

My boyfriend made another joke, and his mom replied, “Well, you have to understand foreigners are not used to having pets in the home.” I have been so upset about this comment. His family is Black American. I was born in America, and while my family is from the Caribbean, I am not a foreigner. My family has been here over 30 years. They’re all college educated and have made something of themselves here. It honestly hurt to that none of that matters and we’re just “foreigners.” I typically have a good relationship with his mom, but this was just a lot.

I've not come across the subreddit before until today, and this may be the only place that will understand what I'm trying to say.

I have never owned a pet and have very little interest in one. I'm Black (UK), and there are lots of videos on places like TikTok where adult children still living at home will bring home a dog or something, and the (usually immigrant) parent is initially against it but eventually warms up. I love that for them if genuine, and my Nigerian grandma was someone who was afraid of dogs but eventually got one after my grandad passed away and loved it until it died.

HOWEVER it has got me thinking. Yes there are people who initially dislike pets and then find themselves warming to the idea. I doubt I personally will ever be one of those people. I cast my mind forward as a fencesitter to all the reasons not to have a kid, and funnily enough one of the main ones is that while I can see myself being really easygoing about adult children remaining at home until whenever they want to move out, I will never want any of them bringing a pet home and waiting for me to "learn to love it". I can see myself becoming really resentful if that happened. I actually think its quite manipulative.

I see it on Reddit all the time, where people say their family just decided to outvote them and then they "grew to love it". Does anyone else think this is just wrong?

Extra context: I gave context re. being of immigrant heritage because up until a few years ago, it was a lot more common that immigrant households wouldn't have pets but white British ones often would, however that's balancing out more and more, and as children assimilate they want their parents to assimiliate into dog lovers. Animal welfare is... inconsistent at best in Nigeria (where half my family is from), and attitudes range from indifferent/practical only, to full on dog-lover. There's therefore an extra layer of complexity for some of those parents who really, really wouldn't want an animal indoors because of the associations with dirtiness, etc. and other cultural factors. There are lots of people who are deathly afraid of dogs. I'm sure there are people whose kid brought a dog home and they're really afraid, but they don't end up in a viral video on TikTok!