I could not help but think about what many foreigners find amusing about the United States when they get here: the reverence and companionship people have with dogs are quite out of the ordinary.
Sure, it is made possible by having lots of money since feeding another mouth, buying toys and pet psychologists can be quite expensive. But even if I had all the money in the world, I wouldn’t want a noisy, hairy, overly-affectionate, demand-seeking beast in my house. There’s already one of me.
I am amused by dogs from a far but would never want one. It’s like New York, I love to visit but would hate to be there long enough to get mugged. When a dog sniffs my crotch I feel like I am experiencing the less violent analogue to sexual harassment on the streets.
Plus Abu Ghraib comes to mind.
And Americans with their dogs on the street or worse, in elavators… I hate when they let them run up to me under the assumption I want to play with them like they’re god’s gift to cuteness. I always make sure to give the owners a keep-your-big-rat-on-a-leash-away-from-me look.
So this photo of Elin Nordegren Woods avoiding paparazzi with her dogs in the car cracked me, and probably only me, up. I know she’s Nordic, but what is it with people having so many damn dogs. They look like humans seated as passengers in this photo. It’s like Driving Miss Daisy, except Miss Daisy is three canines.
But most of all, the stupid looks on the dog’s faces cracked me up. Part of it is the incongruence between her protecting her identity from lecherous photographers and them just looking at the camera plainly and stupidly. Dumb dogs.
What’s funny about this post is I know it will anger some people more than did Obama’s speech on Afghanistan announcing an intensification of the occupation of Afghanistan.
To me, keeping dogs like little humans, pampering and spoiling them, taking them places, is a lot stranger and shocking than is adultery. Adultery after all, happens everywhere all the time. The humanization of, and obsession with, dogs is just an especially weird Americanism.
I am not saying man-animal love is completely abnormal — well to the extent it does not get past third base — but the rights, privileges and emotional investments bestowed on the furry creatures is freaky. When people treat their pets better than they treat their children, that is where I say caninophilism has turned into caninofetishism. And that is just too damn weird.
Related posts:
Americanism? Check out English people and their dogs some time.
Posted by Snarla | December 5, 2009, 2:43 pm//Plus Abu Ghraib comes to mind.//
lololololol
Posted by lol | December 5, 2009, 3:11 pmThe relationship between humans and dogs is not uniquely American. It is a historical and worldwide relationship. Canines can be very intelligent, and different breeds have different skills and special abilities. Dogs can help humans in everything from companionship, to hunting, to fighting/protection. Dogs are, after all, "mans best friend". It is well known that Arabs generally look down on dogs as "dirty" or unacceptable, such as the Arab taxi-drivers who were refusing to allows dogs into the cabs, discriminating against blind people with seeing eye dogs. The funny thing is that American dogs are generally cleaner than most Arabs.
Posted by Gevalia | December 5, 2009, 6:44 pm"The funny thing is that American dogs are generally cleaner than most Arabs." Which is not saying much, they still smell like haredi jews.
Posted by Chauncey | December 5, 2009, 7:26 pmHaving worked in ER's in both the Middle East and USA I can say without a doubt the hygeine of Arabs is far superior to that of Americans – hands AND pants down.
Posted by nejmi | December 6, 2009, 3:20 amSeems like a lot of racist thinking in the comment threads. People are people. What separates us is the content of our minds and hearts, not appearance. If some goof wants to dislike dogs, so what? I like my dogs and they work much better as burglar alarms than brinks or broadview or whatever they call themselves these days. Often a dog is much less likely to be treacherous than a man. Dogs also have a tendency to consider themselves part of your family and therefore protect you accordingly. Dogs can be trained to be a helper to you if you are involved in raising herd animals. Dogs work to make the lives of blind and crippled people better. Dogs are crucial to some aspects of police work and other safety and security organizations. We use dogs to locate illegal drugs and dangerous explosives, track fugitives and lost children, not to mention their utility as a doorbell.
Posted by Kimbal | December 5, 2009, 8:28 pmIn Austrian coffee shops, the babies napped in buggies outside, but the dogs were allowed in.
In the UK, a law forcing dogs owners to take them for walks is being considered.
I swore I would never have a dog in the home after the shedding messes my parent's golden retrievers used to make. Then I had kids, and they begged, and they won.
Posted by kinzi | December 5, 2009, 9:29 pmSome of the terrorists laying in the streets of Falluja were eaten by dogs. They got turned into dog-meat, literally!
Posted by Alpo | December 5, 2009, 10:16 pmI thought the 'merikan's left no man behind.
Posted by hanoum | December 6, 2009, 3:10 amthey don't, but the muslimes do!
Posted by Alpo | December 6, 2009, 11:59 amSlime, being humidity dependant, is far more prevalent in the Western Hemisphere than Southwest Asia.
Posted by hanoum | December 7, 2009, 2:45 amthen why are the muslimes more prevalent in Southwest Asia? lol
Posted by lol | December 7, 2009, 3:50 ammuslimes is a derogatory term to refer to the bad guys, in response to your implying that Americans were the terrorists in Falluja, when clearly it was the Islamist insurgents. not all Muslims are muslimes.
Posted by lol | December 7, 2009, 4:02 amPeople who are fighting to eject foreign invaders and occupiers are not slime.
Posted by hanoum | December 8, 2009, 7:02 amBut scumbags who blow up their own people in the name of "resistance" certainly are
Posted by C.H. | December 10, 2009, 8:12 pmThe 3arab jarab who mass murder Iraqis do not belong to Iraq; they are not "our own" people.
Posted by Iraqi Mojo | December 10, 2009, 8:23 pmSome of the Baathists/Fedyeen who blow themselves up are from Iraq, unfortunately. But you are right…most are non-Iraqi Arabs from KSA, Syria, Egypt, etc. I was trying to make the point that many of these people talk about Iraqis as "brothers" when they are victimized by Americans (Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo) but then turn around and mass murder them.
Posted by C.H. | December 10, 2009, 8:27 pmHardcore Baathists do not commit suicide – they invited and sheltered Wahhabi slime, who were convinced that killing "apostates" would be rewarded in heaven. Baathists have always known how to manipulate Islam in order to gain and maintain power.
But you did make a good point, C.H. Many more Iraqis were tortured and murdered at Abu Ghraib before 2003. The Arabs in general can be quite clueless, unfortunately.
Posted by Iraqi Mojo | December 10, 2009, 8:33 pmGenerally I agree, but don't you think that on some occasions hardcore ex-republican guards have strapped bombs to themselves, screamed praise to Saddam, and detonated themselves in crowded markets? It doesn't always take a fundamentalist and the promise of heaven to do so…Saddam built a cult around himself, just like Tamil Tiger leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran (a secularist who invented "suicide vests) in Sri Lanka.
Posted by C.H. | December 10, 2009, 8:40 pmI should acknowledge that the Arab media did not cover crimes at Abu Ghraib before 2003. But it's been many years since the truth has been disseminated via the internet, just like the injustice in Palestine has been, so one would think our Arab brothers would have learned the truth by now.
Pre-2003 Torture & Murder at Abu Ghraib: http://iraqimojo.blogspot.com/2008/09/pre-2003-to…
Posted by Iraqi Mojo | December 10, 2009, 8:42 pmHere's an interesting story. This particular scumbag came all the way from Denmark to mass murder doctors in Somalia!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8406886.stm
Posted by C.H. | December 10, 2009, 8:48 pmJihad Cat doesn't like Dogs!
Posted by khat | December 6, 2009, 11:58 amwhy doesn't Will like dogs?
Posted by snoop dogg | December 6, 2009, 11:57 pmIt's really a shame. Middle Easterners do not see dogs as pets; more like squirrels, coyotes……nothing that belongs in or near a house.
Posted by nejmi | December 7, 2009, 2:48 amA friend once said this on the topic…."Americans love dogs because they've never felt unconditional love from human beings. They can beat this dog and yell at it and neglect it and the dog will still come up to them and snuggle and lick their face. But us Arabs we could murder a school bus full of nuns and our mothers will still love us."
Posted by Desert Monkey | December 7, 2009, 7:57 amLucky dog survives Baghdad bombing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJeeznS8tg8
Looks like at least one Arab (Iraqi) family loves their dog.
Do any of our Arab "brothers" here give a shit about the seemingly unending Arab terrorism that continues to mass murder and maim innocent Iraqis?
Posted by Iraqi Mojo | December 10, 2009, 7:18 pm"Plus Abu Ghraib comes to mind." -Will
Are you one of those Arab Americans who was angered by images of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison? How many Iraqis did US soldiers kill at Abu Ghraib?
Did you know about torture and murder at Abu Ghraib before 2003? http://iraqimojo.blogspot.com/2009/05/pics-of-abu…
Or do you get angry about the torture and murder of Iraqis only when Americans torture and murder Iraqis?
OMG Arabs are lame. It's so sad.
Posted by Iraqi Mojo | December 12, 2009, 6:06 pmExcellent comment.
Posted by snark | December 12, 2009, 10:29 pmI don't care about Arabs. I do care about my dogs. They bring great joy to my life, they make me happy, they accompany me, they entertain me, they let me know that everything will be OK when I am depressed they love me. Humans don't care that much. My dogs trust me, and I can always trust them. I can't always trust humans.
Saddam was not that particularly nice to Iraqis, and Abu Gharib was a place of torture of Iraqis by Iraqis.
In fact, the things done to Iraqis by Saddam, are much worse than anything American troops might have done. Sunni vs. Shiite, Shiites vs Sunni. The hate was there long before the US showed up.
Posted by yorkiedad | July 18, 2010, 8:52 pm