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| Yes | 31% | 644 votes | Total: 2059 votes | |
| No | 69% | 1415 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesRestaurants in the US are banned from allowing dogs into their space due to state and local health restrictions. However, if you look at restaurants in Europe you find there are not as many restrictions. In addition, if you look at the whole culture in Europe you will see a total difference in how they view eating out, pets, cleanliness and where value is placed.
While Americans have had a love affair with pets in the last decade, our fellow Europeans have settled into their pet relationships in a more reasonable and realistic manner. Europeans see pets as companions and family members, hence their difference in treatment of animals. It is expensive to own a pet in Europe so many are well treated. In America it is much less expensive to purchase, license, treat and house a pet which leads us to not think of our pets as valued property. As with anything, if it is cheap, it is not valued.
All this said, I see no reason why pets, specifically dogs can not join owners in restaurants. Americans could learn from our European cousins in how to incorporate our pets into our everyday society. Dogs are not dirty, or poisonous to our food and do not pose health hazards in restaurants. Think of how many people have pets in their homes all over the world. Do any of us fall victim to disease because our pet lays at our feet when we are cooking or under the table while we eat? NO! In Europe pets come with you on walks, into stores and most any place a person can be seen. Even old King Charles put into law that the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is allowed anywhere in all of England.
It is also my belief that if restaurants practiced good cleaning protocol then cleaning standards would not be an issue in the first place in the US. Health standards are set out of necessity since many restaurants do not place cleanliness as a priority. Bringing a pet into the space only then adds to the larger issue of failed cleanliness. The pet alone can not cause enough issue to make a restaurant dirty or to fail to meet legal standards. If restaurants met standards first then pets would not be an issue.
So, there, I have said it all. I blame the fact we can not take our pets into restaurants on the restaurant owners and our culture. If restaurant owners would clean up their act, then we would have a chance to change the standards in the US. If pet owners would treat animals as valued property, then pets would not be seen as dirty throw-a-ways. In other words, if we all worked together we could make the changes needed so pets could enjoy more time with humans everywhere. I am all for the change.
Learn more about this author, Kathy Goodin-Mitchell.
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No
Recently, the City of St. Louis passed an ordinance allowing dogs to dine with their human companions. The ordinance limits the area a dog may roam to outside dining venues like patios and street walkways, where Fido can lay in peace while picking up scraps from the dinner table. The Mayor, a dog owner himself, gleefully signed the new law into effect under the pomp and circumstance of a ceremony at one of the city's restaurants.
Even though the law restricts dogs to outside dining areas, it is still a terrible idea on a number of levels. On one level is the food safety issues that arise when a dog is allowed anywhere near a restaurant. Then, there is just the simple adherence to personal safety.
Restaurants have a difficult enough time trying to navigate the potentially debilitating event of a food-borne illness outbreak. Not only do restaurant operators have to be concerned with product safety, they also contend with employee hygienic practices and food production processes. On top of that, they have to deal with a general public that invariably refuses to wash their hands after using the restroom. Many studies suggest that over 75% of restaurant patrons zip up and head straight out of the restroom without sanitizing their hands.
And now we want to throw dogs into this volatile food safety mix?
Dogs present many food safety and sanitation problems, with the most obvious being the feces that they inevitably leave behind. Feces of any kind, much less a dog's, contains potentially dangerous bacteria that can be transmitted through cross contamination into the food of a restaurant. Feces attract flies and mosquitoes, two species known for transmitting food-borne illnesses. If flies and mosquitoes are rampant in an eating establishment, the place will be cited by health inspectors. Dogs just exacerbate an already serious food safety issue.
And what about the scores of people that pet Fido? Are they going to wash their hands after doing that? Most likely, they will return to their table and immediately pick up their juicy burger with Fido's germs and bacteria on their hands. A food-borne illness episode is waiting under the fingernails of the person that pets a dog.
Dogs are fierce territorial animals. Allowing dogs into a restaurant or an outside facility will exacerbate dog's aggressive tendencies towards other dogs. Add to that an owner feeding the dog from the table and we have a combustible scenario where one or more dogs could become territorial and fight for the scraps or just fight because one dog's butt hole doesn't smell right. Dogs attack humans and especially children who make sudden, unexpected movements towards them. Why would a restaurant owner risk that happening and spend the last of the restaurant's resources fighting a lawsuit?
Allowing dogs into restaurants is the latest attempt by dog owners to bring Fido closer to human status. What's next: Fido sitting by its owner in the dentist office? Fido ensconced next to their best friend on a roller coaster? The last time I checked, dogs don't invite me over to share what they are eating out of their bowl. I know my dog doesn't.
Keep a restaurant safe by keeping the dogs out!
Learn more about this author, Keith Bailey.
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