Men are not allowed to walk dogs (or cats) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia due to newly passed law

The reason why men aren’t allowed to walk dogs or take cats out on a stroll in Riyadh as of Wednesday is because they aren’t allowed to buy pets there any more. A hamster, maybe. A goldfish, probably, but not a dog or a cat. If a person has a pet already, the person can keep the pet, just not take it outside. As of Wednesday, the ban went into effect.

According to this AP article, some men, it seems, were using their furry friends as a way to get up close and personal with women and bother families–a big no no in Saudi Arabia. The sexes are to be separate from each other. Dogs and cats are ice breakers for bridging the divide.

As bans go, this one sounds a bit loosey goosey since as of the writing of the article, people didn’t know about the ban, including a pet shop owner. The other detail the article pointed out is that it’s not often that people walk dogs in Riyadh anyway and when do people really walk cats?

From what the people who were interviewed said, it doesn’t sound as if people are planning to follow the ban, just like what happened when there was a ban on cell phones with cameras back in 2004. The fear there was that people of the opposite sex would use the cameras to take pictures of each other. People didn’t go along with that ban so it was dropped.

If you are planning on heading to Saudi Arabia, I’d leave the pooch or kitty at home unless you don’t mind them having a stay under the care of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the name for the religious police who are doing the pet confiscating.

One thought about this ban is that it’s really to control pet ownership which is seen as a Western influence. Dog ownership has not been part of Saudi culture until more recently. Cats, though, have, so it is unclear why they are being picked on.

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Car Seats for Your Pets

If you are one who doesn’t like to leave your pet at home on a car trip, but worry about pet safety, here are two options I saw in an article about the latest pet travel gear. They may be slightly over the top, but this is an area of the travel accessory business that’s booming.

If your pet gets cold during car rides, why not consider a bed called a Sleepypod? It heats up when you plug its adapter into your car lighter. And, like a baby car seat carrier, you can take it with you when you leave the car. On the Web site there is a photo of a couple dining at an outdoor cafe with the carrier resting on a chair. There is another of someone waiting in a hotel lobby with the carrier on the floor. And still another of a couple with the carrier between them on a park bench. The photos rotate, so who knows what you’ll see.Another pet car seat for a dog is one that looks like a huge stuffed animal. The stuffed animal seat is called a Bed Pal. It fastens to the backseat of a car with a seat belt. Somehow you buckle your dog into it. There is even a pocket for a dog toy.

I’m sure that my son would love to put our dog Josie in the frog version of this seat. Whenever we travel and take Josie with us, she sits on an old towel on the backseat to keep the dog hair off. (The towel method does not work that well, sad to say.) If a person has a toddler and a dog, I can just see how the toddler might be a bit upset that his or her own car seat is just so darned dull–so utilitarian and not an enormous teddy bear.