Let’s get this out of the way first: We love dogs. Love ’em! Can’t get enough of their little paws and slobbering faces and the way they worm their way into our cold hearts. That said, has anyone else noticed a whole lot of, well, poop on the sidewalks lately?
In this week’s Sunday read, we tasked associate editor Shaunice Ajiwe with finding out just how this city has become so maniacally overrun by not just dogs, but by their ill-mannered owners. There’s a Westie in Walmart. A corgi in the coffee shop. A dachshund at the doctor. For the dogless — or even for those of us who leave their dogs at, you know, home — it can seem like the city has been taken over by these pampered pooches. And what if we (gasp!) don’t want to smell wet dogs while we sift through the peppers at Whole Foods?
The subject has become a near-constant source of discussion and debate among the Philly Mag staff. What Ajiwe found is a city in flux, and disagreement.
“In an ideal world, laws would effectively impose order and help us coexist, and people would follow them,” Ajiwe writes. “In our world, the desires of dog owners and the desires of the dogless seem to be constantly at odds, and the laws aren’t doing much to help.” Read more.