EDITORIAL – Why not allow dogs where we eat and drink?
What’s wrong with allowing a well-behaved dog into a bar or restaurant? (Image: Marcel Forest)
An ArmchairMayor.ca editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
ON A TRIP to Scotland a few years ago, I was struck by how pleasant it was to go into a pub or a restaurant and, as often as not, see one of the locals sitting at a table with their faithful canine lying nearby.
How perfectly civil. Chaps enjoying a bite and maybe an ale, and their dogs there with them.
Try that here at home and you’d be up on charges. Dogs aren’t even allowed on patios.
Every day in downtown Kamloops, you can find a dog tied up outside while its master is in getting an injection of caffeine. In my view, we should allow well-behaved dogs a little more leash, as it were.
Mel Rothenburger’s Armchair Mayor editorials appear twice daily Mondays through Thursdays on CFJC- TV. His Armchair Mayor column is published Saturdays on ArmchairMayor.ca and CFJC Today. Contact him at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
I’m with you Mel. This is done everywhere else in the world…but here. Now as to the complainers, ok the establishments don’t have to, we will let those cater to you….But I would like some to cater to me…..I especially love-and so does my shar pei- going to Home Hardware. He likes when they give him biscuits. I carry ( a bag in my pocket) all ways. And I’m in control. Allow some businesses to open doing this- a restaurant for dogs, a pub, anything…..they’d get my business. But here we can’t even have a beer store…
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I fully support the idea of allowing our canine friends into public establishments, however, it’s the owners of some of these unfortunate canines that make it bad for the rest of the population. Their disregard for care and control of their pets, disrupt the other patrons to the point it becomes chaotic. I find what the problem the city of Kamloops faces is the reckless way that cats run loose all over the city and there are no bylaws in place to remedy this situation.
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Come on Mel. Your dog may be fine, but what about all those people that cannot even manage their small kids in an eatery ? Then you have the substantial number of people who will claim their dog is ” friendly ” while it buries its teeth in your leg, or barks incessantly at nothing, or begs at tables , while the owners coo about how cute it is. And lets not forget the people who don’t bother to pick up after their dogs, and leave the treasures everywhere for people, & kids to step or fall in. As much as you might think this is a fine idea, Murphy says that it just won’t happen the way you expect.
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Who’s gonna pick-up the poo? I mean sure well-behaved dogs are great but no I don’t think dogs should be allowed in establishments, the space ain’t there and they can be a tripping hazard. But landlords should/could definitely be much more accommodating with lonely people’s pets. But how is it that people are tuning out of other people and find comfort in pets? Is it a matter of a latent desire to control?
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