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(File photo)

By Tamara Goesch

Recently, while driving to my weekly volunteer gig reading with human children, I was appalled to observe a young man giving his rather large dog full access to the drinking fountain at Brooklyn Park.

Yuck!

The dog was leaning on the drinking basin with its front paws and lapping directly from the faucet with the same tongue it, like every dog, uses to regularly lick its own genitals. Although my camera was on the seat next to me, I was so shocked by what I was seeing that I failed to react in time to take an incriminating shot, and I didn't dare roll down the window and express my outrage in what I've come to learn is a city where many people privilege dogs over humans.

Like residents of no other place I know, Portlanders lavish time and treasure on their pets to the detriment of other needs -- and other humans, including themselves. For example, although poverty is rampant among Portland school children, a local vet clinic chain-gifted a number of those poor children a vanity publication promoting pet ownership. Seniors who can't afford their own necessary medications and rely on food banks for basic nutrition will scrimp to buy heartworm pills and feed one or more pets. The city's streets are a national disgrace, and many city park "amenities" are beyond run-down, but the parks department offers "33 off-leash areas -- the most per capita of any U.S. city -- for dog recreation." Parents moaning about underfunded schools and the skyrocketing cost of college prioritize pet ownership; dogs and cats cost hundreds of dollars per year, often five-figure totals over their lifetimes, still the equivalent of one year's tuition at a state university.

The Multnomah County tax assessor's office includes flyers promoting pet ownership with the annual property tax statements, but nothing about ending homelessness for humans. And no one seems to want to admit that the vast majority of the pets being snapped up would not exist if pet ownership was not a multibillion-dollar business blatantly playing upon primitive emotional responses to big-eyed furry creatures to enrich pet food producers, vets, breeders, pet supply stores and even greeting card manufacturers and costume makers!

I've heard -- and comprehend -- all the many reasons people want to have pets and benefit from having pets. But I am not ashamed to admit I am blatantly "species-ist" and believe that food, clothing and shelter -- as well as education and healthcare -- for humans take precedence over pet ownership. Unfortunately, American culture is infamous for its emphasis on self-gratification and instant gratification. Thus, I have little hope that this screed will make a whit of difference in the skyrocketing rates of mindless pet ownership in this, my adopted city.

But could we at least all agree that dogs should not be drinking from the water fountains installed for human convenience?

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Tamara Goesch lives in Southwest Portland.