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blisss  ·  4135 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Experiment: What's YOUR most controversial opinion, Hubski?

Here in the city, people generally tend to get their dogs trained properly. I used to be weary about them (okay, I still am) but I have warmed up to passing them now-a-days. As long as you don't give the dogs eye contact they tend to go about their business. There are even people who have their beasts trained so well that they can walk them without a leash with tons of people walking about and go into a store without having to worry about the dog bothering others or running off.

What made me feel a little more at ease about the whole dog situation is this one guy who had a pitbull that I was sure was going to go after a cat that a store owner owned completely, entirely disregarded the cat. For a few seconds I felt I was seeing things. It nonchalantly walked by, leash-less and sat at the side of the front door waiting for the owner to return.

I lived in the suburbs in Texas, though, and it is a completely different aspect. I know exactly where you are coming from with this view. I would change to the opposite side of the street (and that is a good four lanes) to avoid peoples' crazed dogs. They would bark before you even realized a dog was trotting on your path.

Ending the domestication is a vague concept, though.

How would one go about this? Would we have to 'put down' millions of house-trained dogs (and I use this term very loosely) individually?

Where would the money to do something on such a vast scale come from (taxpayers/owners)? People would definitely feel as if their freedoms are being threatened, seeing that any regulation is usually heavily dreaded. "Why do I have to pay for something that I do not own?" "Why do I have to pay for something I do not want?"

Would it be systematic genocide of an entire race of animal? Wild dogs are rare enough as it is (at least, to my understanding). If we were to not kill the house-trained animals and let them roam free in the wild, it raises the possibility of them roaming free and unrestricted. Possibly hostile due to them being abandoned, hungry and left to die. The dogs would get diseases and spread disease. There would be millions of unaccounted dead carcasses peppered across the country (world).

If you think flies are annoying now, imagine enough flies to feast upon these dogs that have had days and weeks to breed and thrive from the dead dogs. Now, imagine these same flies that have bred and gained in mass numbers with little to nothing left to feast on, having to scavenge for food once again but now with increased numbers and less food sources.

It'd be a complete disaster.

I guess you could, over the years, eradicate all of the dogs. Though, it would be too much trouble. You would have to create a fair system to choose which dogs are to be killed or there will be people calling racism and sexism. There will be those who cause trouble because their next-door neighbor can own a cat; a bird.

I'm sure there are many more angles that I haven't addressed but the fact that there are so many show that this is highly improbable.

Your opinion is understood and shared. Though, it is an unrealistic goal to accomplish within our lifetimes so we are better off learning to cope with it.