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Comment by throw8398394 | Hacker News Reader

In my experience dog owners just do not care. Vaccine costs time and money.

The same with training. Most dog owners are just lazy, and do not care. Adding some sophisticated explanations on top of that is pointless.

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Well, in my experience, "in my experience" anecdotes are lazy. Though, I'm sure this is generally more true for some breeds more so than others.

Those people do not care about basic hygiene or safety, but somehow develop and practise complex medical opinions!

Have you talked to the kind of American voter who spouts antivax nonsense in the last decade? Because "these people <are incompetent at thing X> but somehow develop and practice complex medical opinions <that they heard on TV>" is literally true for millions.

Have you talked to average American dog owner? They leave their "kids" locked in tiny apartments alone for 10 hours a day, while working. Are not bothered if their "pet" is neurotic mess. If it becomes too annoying, it gets dumped into shelter or on streets. If it dies, it gets replaced in weeks!

You are really giving dog owners too much agency!

We get it, you’re depressed. Most dog owners like their dogs and take care of them to the best of their ability.

I've never met a dog owner who does this. If you know multiple, that speaks more to your social circle than anything else.

> Well, in my experience, "in my experience" anecdotes are lazy

In this case this reinforces their argument

In my experience, if you know a few people who are doing the same thing, that’s a sign of a trend. Jeff Bezos has this great quote: When the data and the anecdotes disagree, the anecdotes are usually right. I’ve also found that to be true. The people you know are different from the average person, but they’re not that different. On the other hand economic surveys and such can be very slow to respond to big changes.

This is not my experience anywhere in the US. We don't have a problem with stray dogs, rabies vaccination is ubiquitous, and I've never heard of anyone resisting it for their pets.

In my experience, if you get a dog you go to the government and pay the dog tax. The dog needs to have id, be chipped, and comes with a token you put on the leash. Part of the process is enforcing vaccination. If a dog has no such token, it’s considered a stray dog.

To so many issues, watching as a bystander from the outside, solutions exist, but the US seems to have a penchant for ignoring them and then claiming their problem is somehow not comparable to everyone else’s.

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