The People Who Came for Your Plastic Bag and Straw Now Want Your Dog

From the people who turned your Mustang into a Prius and made it so your dishwasher does not actually wash dishes comes a new villain, not quite straight from central casting, in the imaginary war on the planet: dogs.

“We are all too aware of the negative effects of cats,” Australian academics Bill Bateman and Lauren Gilson write at The Conversation, “both owned and feral, on wildlife…. Our pet dogs seem to get a free pass.”

With all the charm of Almira Gulch and the subtlety of Michael Vick, Bateman and Gilson argue that man’s best friend really sits, and rolls over, as mankind’s great enemy.

The authors argue, “Our beloved pet dogs have a far greater, more insidious and more concerning effect on wildlife and the environment than we would like to be the case.”

How so?

“The medications we use to rid our pet dogs of fleas or ticks can last weeks on fur, and wash off when they plunge into a creek or river,” they write. “But some of these medications have ingredients highly toxic to aquatic invertebrates, meaning a quick dip can be devastating.”

They point out, “Dogs largely eat meat, meaning millions of cows and chickens are raised just to feed our pets.”

“Researchers have found when birds such as blue tits and great tits collect brushed-out dog fur to line their nests,” they write, “it can lead to fewer eggs hatching and more dead hatchlings.” (And while the first species possibly enjoys a niche audience somewhere on the internet, one can easily see the formation of a mass-movement to save the second, already quite popular, species).

Dogs chase wildlife, and this “can exhaust tired migratory birds, forcing them to use more energy,” and deer “run sooner and farther if they see a human with a leashed dog than a human alone.”

And if this were not enough to set up an appointment to euthanize your golden retriever, “Then there’s the poo.”

It all seems a stretch, and the scholarly article linked to buttress the “highly toxic” for aquatic invertebrates claim regarding flea and tick medications instead points to “a potential risk” for such creatures. And the bird eggs-insecticide study cited by Bateman and Gilson, which found traces of insecticides in all 103 of the nests examined, notes that “it is not possible to assess whether we would expect the concentrations of insecticides found in nests in our study to harm eggs or chicks.”

The war on dogs seems unlikely to prevail — at least in the United States (China and Vietnam seem possibly more receptive to this campaign).

“A lot of people make fun of Asians because we like to eat dogs, which I understand is very shocking because in America, dogs are treated like family members,” comedian Hans Kim observed. “But in Asia, we treat our family members like family members.”

American dog owners spend about $600 a year on their pet for such luxuries as the Skype Doggie Cam to connect pooch with master by remote, numerous brands of doggy ice cream, and pooch car seats. Nearly half (46 percent) of American households contain a dog. The pets number about 90 million, meaning the U.S. boasts more than double the number of canines as Canada does people.

Dogs rank somewhere between yoga pants and the beach in popularity. So, this ideological crusade against them looks like a lost cause. This dog won’t hunt. Or will he?

Consider that the people long pushing to mandate electric vehicles (EVs) suddenly just started to firebomb the most popular EVs in the United States. With God ideology, anything is possible. And when ideologues criticize anything, how long before they advocate a ban on it?

Count on it somewhere, someday in the future. A rescue pet, once the calling card of a virtue signaler, soon yields to the ultimate in I-am-a-good-person-and-I-care demonstrative acts: dog murder.

Yes, some people cheer when Old Yeller dies.

READ MORE from Daniel J. Flynn:

Simple Math Shows That China Lacks Leverage in This Trade War

Elitist Libs Remove the ‘Demo’ From the Democrats

Mariah Carey in Rock Hall Would Seem Like Reason to Shutter It

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