Beside everything else, i can't get a dog or cat on public transit here. Thus i have to have a car. In Russia, when i wasn't able to afford car, my cat rode bus, train, subway with me when we had to get him somewhere. Of course, i'd get a car there too the moment i could afford it, yet public transit was a feasible alternative when i didn't have a car.
it is hard to understand that knee-jerk reaction to animals in US ( personally i think it is rooted in basic Puritan habit of blaming somebody else [government, immigrants, regulations, dogs, ...] for your own problems). I understand that Russia isn't a good example of civilized society. Well, in France you can take your dog or cat into any restaurant, cafe, bar, etc ... pretty much everywhere. The public and personal health situation in France is among the best in the world. Sanitary rules in US prohibiting dogs is just red-herring.
It's a tradeoff. Personally, I have no problem with well-behaved pets in a store or restaurant. I know people who do (even though they don't have allergies). I think it's fair to say that some subset of the US population believes that pets shouldn't be allowed in restaurants (at least inside) and that is what laws generally reflect. The US has one set of standards; France has another.
US airlines do allow certain pets to travel in cabins with their humans. Nor do airlines etc. routinely ban all foods to which someone may be allergic.
Do you seriously mean that France thus banned humans with allergies? It is false dichotomy. Completely fits pattern of blaming somebody else.
To the comment below:
"but allowing animals that spread dander everywhere makes the environment hazardous to anyone with serious pet allergies."
unfounded BS (sounds very similar to industrial bread producers propaganda 100 years ago about those dirty immigrants touching your bread with their dirty hands in their dirty bakeries). Until it is a sterile OR, the surrounding environment is full of living matter. Dog or cat in a cafe doesn't change the situation. Or do you seriously mean that France doesn't care about such dangerous hazard to people's health?
I know that France hasn't literally banned humans with allergies, but allowing animals that spread dander everywhere makes the environment hazardous to anyone with serious pet allergies.
Also, if you're going to continue with the ad hominem attacks, could you at least explain how 'blaming other people for your problems' is even applicable? It isn't obvious to me at all.
I have no allergies at all. I was not thinking of allergies at all when I expressed my gratitude that your "dog or cat" is not allowed on public transportation in the US.
You shouldn't bring cats and dogs onto public transportation because it's rude, immodest and impositional. I have the same objective to your bringing a cat on the train as I do to your boarding the train without pants on.
>You shouldn't bring cats and dogs onto public transportation because it's rude, immodest and impositional.
and it doesn't look like you're kidding. Interesting that the people who try to impose their own standards of modesty upon others never feel that such imposing is immodest. Holier than thou.
>I have the same objective to your bringing a cat on the train as I do to your boarding the train without pants on.
such an internal repression! interesting where it comes from (homeschooling? or religious family?). Sounds like there is also some deep-seated phobia that in particular manifests here itself toward cats and probably "germs" and "chaos" in general. Sometimes people do surprise ...
You shouldn't bring _children_ onto public transportation because it's rude, immodest and impositional. I have the same objective to your bringing a _small, poorly trained animal_ on the train as I do to your boarding the train without pants on.
Unfortunately, even the pretty unhealthy and disturbing content of the "modesty" standards of those types like the parent isn't the biggest problem here. After all, people do have different opinions. Education, exposition to facts and reasonable discussion are known tools in dealing with it in normal case.
The biggest problem though is the underlying egocentric worldview of the likes of the parent that the other people do something, like in this particular case bring a dog or a cat on a public transit, with the specific goal of offending those "modesty" standards. That immediately makes them feel offended and under attack. It doesn't cross their mind that a dog or especially cat owner would take the dog or cat on public transit with just the goal of getting to some destination (especially when the public transit is the only realistically feasible option in the given situation). It is the same situation like with same-sex marriage - people marry same sex partners because of love or taxes/finances/etc., and not because of the goal to destroy the "marriage must be heterosexual" standard of and thus offend the "modesty"/"values" types. Such deep-gut egocentric worldview - people is out there to get me - naturally drives the aggressiveness with which they attempt to impose their "modesty" standards upon the others and makes the things like education/enlightenment, reasonable discourse, exposition to facts, etc. pretty ineffective, unfortunately.
A dog can be a smaller nuisance than many humans, though I do understand a concern about allergies.
That being said, I found it amusing that on a trip long ago to a German speaking place (I forget exactly; it may have been Munich?) where you had to buy a ticket for your dog, but it was at least half price.
