The golden retriever I grew up with was great with kids. He also thought it was fun to play on the playground equipment with us, and dig in the sand. I was 12 when a Very Concerned Parent escorted myself, my sister, my brother and our dog off the playground because her kid was more important than the three of us and…

As long as you don't require that I choose your kid, it's fine.

What part of building a safe space for dogs to run, sniff, roll and act like dogs is treating them like humans?

A child, no matter how much you love it, is not a dog. It never will be, and it's not the same. But I don't understand why persons who have children have a more perfect right to enjoy public spaces than persons who do not have children.

Dogs aren't like kids because they take care of me RIGHT NOW, no need to wait for them to grow up and gain some emotional intelligence. Plus, I love my family (furry and otherwise) enough that I wouldn't condemn them to starve in order to preserve my otherwise useless remains.

Yeah, but dog owners pay taxes. Children may or may not eventually pay taxes that contribute to some other park, but right now the park is paid for by current tax payers. A parent is not a more worthy tax payer than a dog owner, anymore than a golfer is a more worthy tax payer than a basketball player.

My greyhound was severely child phobic when he first came home. Couldn't leave the house if he could see children in the street. Still had kids come tearing up out of nowhere to "pet" the dog, and they refused to leave even after I said he was terrified of kids.

I had an inadvertent nipple-bleeding incident while bathing my show cat, does that count?

As an owner of four cats, two dogs and a turtle I am insulted at the assumption that my pets are somehow an inferior substitute for a child. I chose not to have a child. I chose to have pets. These are separate, unrelated decisions. Choosing not to have a child does not mean that I am some emotionally stunted…

Heh, had a woman bring her dog-phobic kid (she announced this to everyone in the park) into the dog park. Not the small-dog area either, in with the loose shepherds and danes. She was upset that my child-phobic greyhound wouldn't help socialize her kid, in fact most of the dogs saw the terrified kid and avoided her.

I hear ya. I get migraines triggered by perfume but ask someone to please go wash the chemical haze off and it's like you have insulted their dead mother. Have you ever tried to ask someone to smoke downwind? You'd think their cigs where more important than children.

Yeah, also drives me nuts when I'm telling a story about my dogs and some idiot starts talking about their kid. Sheesh, potty trained? My boy was launching his racing career at that age.

Yeah, our dog park has grass. It used to be baseball diamonds but flooded too often for the children so it became a dog park. The agility area has a gravel base though — probably to save on lawn mowing costs.

Just finished adopting out my litter of "feral" kittens. I was amazed at how easy it was to convince them to be tame once they were away from Mom (she is feral, now TNR). 24 hours after trapping (including a vet visit, bath and medications) they weren't hissing anymore.

Whatever environmental factors drew the cats to the area initially are not going to go away just by removing the cats. If Walmart doesn't allow the release of the trapped feral cats then they'll just have an constant inflow of new cats needing to be removed.

In some shelters, feral cats and medical cases are not included as part of the kill rate. You can tell when they say things like, '98% of adoptable animals find homes".

Common sense is what tells you the earth is flat. Basic logic skills are way more important.

Not to mention the whole range of cancers that do not happen in the reproductive system, and the whole range of medical conditions that are not cancer that still require sick days. They'd probably have a better chance of getting that 25 years if they told their teachers not to smoke, drive a car, or hang out with…

That's not feral cat behavior. A feral cat would hide and refuse to approach a human. Turkish Van aren't a common breed, and if they aren't getting the stimulation they need they are more likely than some other breeds to invent it.

My turtle is middle-aged, non-mutated and without ninja skills, which is good because he's ornery enough as it is. He did give me an excuse to learn about turtle biology, however.