Pets Keep Violating My Human Space

My disclaimer: The thoughts that I share in this story may anger readers who love and protect their animals that are house pets. If you have unconditional love for common household pets and esteem them as members of your family with the same rights that humans have, I encourage you to avoid reading this because I speak my truth about my concerns.

Families have the right to embrace their pets as members of their family. They have the right to love them, protect their rights, and so much more.

As a human who chooses not to embrace house pets the way some people do, I have rights, too. I have the right to exist in an environment where animals that are not legally classified as service animals are not forced upon me in public and private spaces. I am becoming so distressed about what I consider a growing problem that I am sharing my opinion in this story.

There Is A Backstory

When I grew up, we had a few dogs. They were either kept outside as the weather permitted or they remained in the basement away from the family living areas. While I helped with a few chores related to the dogs like feeding them, cleaning up their messes, and walking them, I could not do much more because of allergies. I also grew up with severe asthma and was bothered by the dogs as well as cats that I came in contact with. Being around them impacted my breathing.

Because of my childhood experience with the pets that my family had, I never got accustomed to dogs and cats existing within my family unit as if they were human family members. The notion of humanizing animals by permitting them to sleep in a human bed, lick and nuzzle owners on their faces including infants, and allowing them to eat from the dinnerware that the family uses repulses me. So does bathing them in the family bathtub or handling the food that people eat after touching pets without washing their hands. Observing these things nauseates me.

I have friends who have dogs and cats that are embraced as humans. So, I must hide my true feelings about my disdain for these animals being treated like people because I do not want to offend them. Even though I generally keep my opinions to myself except to my daughter because she has wanted a dog for a long time, humanizing dogs and cats who are pets make me angry because I view them as dirty, smelly animals. Furthermore, my continued and compromised health conditions make it problematic for me to be around dogs and cats.

What Bothers Me Most

I consider it unfair for people to impose their extreme love for their pets on me. My feeling excludes certified and authentic service animals because they legally perform a critical function to people who require their support.

There are other things that I think are wrong as it relates to humanized pets.

1. When I make reservations at hotels and resorts, I am forced to confirm their pet policy. If pets that are not service animals are permitted, I will not stay. I do not want to pay for accommodations that housed a germ-infested, smelly animal. (Even after the environment has been cleaned and sanitized after an animal has stayed in hotel rooms, unpleasant animal smells are left behind.) Part of the reason why I am sharing this story is that I am frustrated about hotel reservations that I recently made. My daughter and I must stay on Jekyll Island, Georgia for a gymnastics competition. To my dismay, I found out that the entire island is pet friendly. That means that hotels, restaurants and other eateries, shopping venues, and the beach welcome animals. That also means that humans and common pets must coexist. Unfortunately, if I opt to stay off the island, I am forced to find a hotel a great distance from the location of my daughter’s athletic event. I am very distressed about the mandatory island-wide policy to pay for accommodations that I am required to share with animals. The opportunity for me to safely visit the island without the fear of illness has eliminated my sense of freedom. This has intensified the unsettling feeling that I have about being surrounded by unsanitary conditions everywhere I go on the island.
2. Aside from the popular pet stores that welcome animals, some stores and shopping establishments permit animals to enter. Pet owners dare to put their dogs and cats in grocery carts where food products and other household items are placed by consumers. And there are no guarantees that the shopping carts are regularly sanitized. I once visited a large hardware store that proudly welcomes dogs. A female shopper who held her huge ferocious dog on a leash could not manage it properly. The awkward and very big dog clumsily knocked merchandise over and came in very close contact with shoppers. The dog lunged at people, too, who took its aggression in stride. I became afraid to shop for the products I needed because I had concerns that the animal would break free and charge at me as I saw it do with others. I was met with absolute indifference when I reported the incident to the store manager. The response that I received was that their store is pet friendly.
3. It disturbs me when television and radio stories about animals make headline news. With all the struggles with humanity throughout our global society, I consider news reports about animals that take precedents over important human stories to be audacious. I am so tired of calling the newsroom of television stations to complain about animal stories being held at a higher level of esteem compared to those about human conditions.
4. I fail to comprehend how and why animal rights override human rights in many situations. Simply stated, I fail to understand why family pets have the right to function as humans in many places they are escorted to.
5. So many cautionary initiatives and measures exist about distracted driving. Emphasis has been placed on things like avoiding texting while driving. Some states like Maryland have laws that prevent drivers from holding any technological device while driving. Sadly, many drivers operate cars and trucks while holding dogs and cats on their lap and petting them. That is a dangerous driving practice that needs to stop.
6. It bothers me when I observe humans walk their dogs dressed in outerwear because their human needs to wear a heavy sweater or coat. Some owners thoughtlessly place their animals in coverings that they do not require. Since dogs have fur, they do not need to be covered in a jacket when temperatures are slightly cooler than usual outside. I was once appalled when I observed a woman who wore an outer jacket when the temperature was 50 degrees Fahrenheit walk her dog with a heavy jacket attached to its torso. To me, that reflected animal abuse because the dog did not require a covering at that temperature. Humans should only place coats and jackets on their pets when weather conditions warrant these covering to protect them from the extreme cold.
7. Whether service animals or not, no animal should be permitted near food bars or serving areas in public spaces. I once observed a disturbing sight at a food station in a very popular grocery store. A woman who held her huge service dog by its leash and helped herself at a self-serve food station in the store. She also allowed the animal to lick food around the table and serve utensils as well as sniff the serving bins. While grocery store workers saw what happened, no one stopped the woman or her dog. Neither did the employees remove any food container or utensils that the animal make contact with. They did not sanitize any part of the serving area either. It was business as usual after this event. It was as if the service dog was a human visiting the self-serve food bar. That was the last time I purchased anything in that store.
8. It is unsanitary to permit animals to dine in restaurants with people. This opens the door for food handlers to become very careless by contaminating dinnerware and food after performing their duties in the space occupied by animals. And if the animals drip their saliva, urinates, or defecates in restaurants, the secretions produce many health-related concerns. Customers are put at risk because of the spread of germs and bacteria carried by the animals. I have had to make multiple calls to my county health department and managers of food establishments complaining about animals sharing dining space with patrons because doing so is nasty and is wrong. Regarding my upcoming stay on the Georgia island, I expressed these concerns about dining in restaurants shared by animals. I was told that restaurants in the hotel that I would be staying at would pack my food so that I would have an opportunity to eat in the privacy of my room. So, my right to enjoy the scenic island atmosphere and the restaurant venue that I would be paying for would be stripped away because the right of pets to eat in a restaurant with their owners supersedes my human right to eat in a safe and public dining facility.

My list of troubling and questionable incidents involving imposing pets who are family members is nearly endless.

What I Believe Needs to Happen Next: This Is My Final Thought

I would be dishonest if I said that I will try to love animals. If I am unable to accept and passionately love animals now, I doubt that I ever will. It is my right to focus my love on human beings instead.

I believe that God gave human beings dominion over animal beings. In other words, humans are placed at a higher level of existence than animals. The problem, as I see it, is that some people equalize their existence with the existence of animals by placing their pets at the same or a higher level compared to human beings. Animals are not people and they should not be humanized. Period.

I think that some things need to happen as it relates to pets existing in our society with human beings.

1. Business owners and lawmakers need to realize that everyone does not have a tolerance for house pets let alone love them as family members. Medical conditions complicate this matter for people like me. Animal acceptance should not be normalized in shared public or private human environments as well as in every sector of society.
2. A higher level of emphasis needs to be placed on people respecting other human beings in our global community. Our world is filled with so much unresolved human conflict that it makes no sense to replace or displace the love for humanity that could help remedy this problem with animal love.
3. The notion of humans being encouraged or required to co-exist with animals considered pets must be abandoned. While it is wrong for any person to harm or mistreat family pets, people should not have to embrace them as human peers if they choose not to.
4. Laws need to be enacted that prevent public and private entities that provide goods, services and supports to people from making their environments pet-friendly. However, in doing so, designated and restricted areas should be created for pets and their family members to enjoy together. Such protocols should be implemented without infringing on the space of individuals who have medical conditions that prevent them from being around animals as well as those individuals who do not want animals in the environment they choose to remain in.
5. The reality is clear. Many people do not love animals who are pets. Just as animal rights activists advocate for the pets they love, the rights of people who do not like animals invading their public and private human spaces need to be protected, too.

Pets must stop being fully integrated into every part of society because it is not a fair practice that benefits all people. If we do not stop forcing people to accept the presence of house pets everywhere, they will end up having constitutional rights that will eventually out-weight the rights of humans, especially those who remain disenfranchised.

It is a beautiful thing when families have a pet that brings joy and happiness into their exclusive lives. What must be realized and unequivocally accepted, though, is that many people do not find pleasure in having animals around them.

Thank you for sharing your time with me by reading this story.

By the way, I will provide an update about my visit to Jekhyll Island, Georgia shortly.

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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