On my recent trip to Austria, I was amazed to find that dogs were allowed in restaurants. Not just Paris Hilton-style lapdogs, either. I’m talking huge German shepherds and Rottweilers, walking around the restaurants and pubs, on no leash.
No one except my American companions and I paid them any mind, as if it was completely a normal, everyday thing.
This leads to two questions: Why does Europe, of all places, allow huge dogs in restaurants when they are so highly regulated in other areas?
and
Why doesn’t America, land of the free and home of the brave and a country of dog lovers, not allow even small dogs in restaurants?
It turns out that this is not due to restaurant owners’ choice, or any problems with hygiene, but because of an FDA recommendation the whole nation abides by because states adopt the FDA Food Code. The reasons given are that the dogs could pee on floors and that people might pet the dogs and then prepare food. Toddlers and old people can pee on floors as well, but we don’t ban them, do we? I have never heard of an outbreak of restaurant diseases in Europe do to people bringing their dogs inside, have you?
It’s common practice not just in Austria but in all of Europe to bring dogs into restaurants of any level of service.
So the next time you think that Europe is more highly regulated than the United States, just think of all those poor little friendy puppies recommended by our federal government and forced by our states and localities to be left at home in order for their owners to patronize restaurants, while European dogs lie quietly under the table.
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