Americans overwhelmingly say that many public places should remain dog free
At the end of last year New York City legalized dogs in the outdoor seating sections of restaurants. Together with an increasingly light touch on enforcing a ban on dogs on public transport the country's largest city is increasingly becoming one of it's most dog friendly too. Compared to other countries, such as Britain, where dogs are freely allowed in many bars and on public transport, Americans are less dog friendly.
Research from YouGov shows that, even among dog owners, there is little desire to allow dogs into many public spaces. The only place which, when questioned, Americans tended to support allowing dogs was public transport, which 47% of the country said should be dog friendly. Even then 37% of Americans oppose allowing dogs onto buses and subways. Everywhere else a majority of Americans, and dog owners, oppose allowing dogs. 58% oppose dogs in malls, 71% oppose dogs in bars and 76% oppose dogs in restaurants.
In general the attitudes of those who currently own dogs and those who have never owned a dog vary only slightly, but dog owners (22%) are four times more likely than non dog owners (5%) to say that dogs should be allowed in bars, though even then two-thirds of dog owners think their dogs should stay away.
The desire to keep dogs out of public places doesn't mean that Americans don't reciprocate the feelings of man's best friend. 70% of Americans say that they like dogs 'a lot', compared to 48% for cats, and Americans prefer dogs to cats 56% to 29%.
Full poll results can be found here and topline results and margin of error here.
