Are dog owners and non-dog owners at war?

Tower Hamlets' off-lead ban is the latest salvo in the fight over four-legged friends

- Zing Tsjeng

To me, my rescue dog Judy is perfect. She’s like a spanielsized, four-legged Sabrina Carpenter, all big eyes and floppy blonde hair. To other Londoners, she’s not so perfect. I was prepared for that (not everybody can have good taste, I get it) but open antagonism? Really?

Let me explain. There’s something of a turf war breaking out on the mean streets of London over Judy and her kind. In Tower Hamlets, where I live, I’ve been literally yelled at simply for walking next to people on the pavement. I’ve been chased out of actual dog parks by neighbours claiming they weren’t for dogs. Nor is it unusual for full-on arguments to break out on Nextdoor over dogs in the area.

The war has escalated and the law is getting involved. I had to ask myself, is London, an open and free city where half the homes have dogs, somehow becoming anti-dog? Have the culture wars come to canines?

Tower Hamlets council, citing the increase in the number of “out-of-control” dogs, is looking to introduce the most sweeping ban on off-lead walking in the country, so much so that the Dogs Trust, Kennel Club and Battersea Dogs & Cats Home are all trying to talk them out of it. “To have all dogs on leads in all parks and green open spaces — it’s the first time nationally they’ve seen any council try to push it through,” says Bernadette Moriarty, the co-founder of East London Dog Community, a local group rallying support against the ban.

The XL bully effect

I do understand why other people might be wary of dogs. After last year’s non-stop press coverage of XL bullies and the rise in dog attacks, who can blame them?