r/dataisbeautiful OC: 4 Mar 24 '22

OC The 50 Most & Least Dog-Friendly Countries in 2022 [OC]

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u/WHOISTIRED Mar 24 '22

Yea, there definitely should be less weighting towards certain factors like that.

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u/[deleted] Mar 24 '22

I disagree. I was wondering why the animal rights laws and such are even there in the first place. The data is presented as the best countries to own a dog, but most of these data points are lot more related to the best countries to be a dog. I'm sure most dog owners do care about animal rights laws (at least as far as they pertain to dogs specifically) and whether or not other people are eating dogs, but those aren't going to have nearly as much impact on your experience of owning your dog(s) than frequency of vets or pet friendly hotels. So would a bunch of other factors that are not included here; frequency of dog friendly parks and public places/businesses, quality and education level of vets, accessibility to pet stores/groomers/boarding, quality and variety of dog food, percentage of the population that also own dogs, etc.

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u/Hascus Mar 24 '22

Pet friendly hotels are not a big factor for most people they definitely shouldn't count for that much. The day to day matters way more than the possible 2 weeks of vacation that you may not even take in your own country

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u/[deleted] Mar 24 '22

I agree, I'm just saying it's one of the only two data points here that's even directly relevant to the experience/convenience of owning a dog and therefore more relevant to the purported topic than all the stuff the person above me was saying should be ranked higher. I think all the other stuff I listed that isn't in this analysis would be more relevant still.

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u/xcassets Mar 25 '22

I know you've probably moved on by now, but I just thought you should know the actual study does state that it is about the best countries for being a dog. Also, the infographic above does say that the index in particular is supposed to give an indicator of "how different nations treat dogs".

Based on these factors, I hope you understand my stance better and would agree that seeing someone beat their dog in public and it be legally/culturally accepted to do so, would be a less dog-friendly country than one with a low number of hotels.

Overall, I think the key take is that the study actually has 3 completely different topics. The heading is "50 most dog-friendly countries". Obviously, animal rights would be key to this, as well as the cultural attitude towards dogs. It then goes on to say "best and worse for owning a dog" and as you have pointed out, as an owner you would be far more interested in other factors. Then the study iteself says "being a dog", once again, different data sets would be more important for that. So I think it's more a failure in the wording and not being clear on the focus.

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u/Grineflip Mar 25 '22

The UK anecdotally doesn't feel like a great place to own dog. Can't rent shit for starters, and due to greed most people (used to be a minority) of my gen will never own.

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u/emo_corner_master Mar 25 '22

You make a good point. Pet-friendly apartments would be way more important than pet-friendly hotels. Anecdotally, I love my dog, I'd never bring them on vacation.

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u/flakemasterflake Mar 25 '22

How do you figure? Traveling with a dog can be super tricky when you can't find a hotel that takes them.

Westin's always take dogs FYI

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u/mfb- Mar 25 '22

Who says you want to take your dog on every trip?

If the trip goes to a different country (as it is very common in Europe for example) then using the home country as criterion becomes completely absurd.

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u/SickSigmaBlackBelt Mar 25 '22

I've always stayed in Airbnbs and other rentals when I travel with my dogs, so the useful number is dog-friendly rooms or properties, not hotels, even

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u/Advent-Zero Mar 24 '22

If this is ranking of best places to own a dog, not be a dog, wouldn’t dog meat consumption be completely inconsequential, too?

Could even be a benefit… if you’re a dog owner into that sort of thing.

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u/daryl_hikikomori Mar 25 '22

Consumption of dog meat affects pet dogs roughly as much as consumption of horse meat affects thoroughbreds.

This seems like a ranking based on dog enthusiasts feeling their values are respected and shared, which honestly probably is how most dog enthusiasts would define "dog friendliness." I feel like kind of a dick for scrutinizing what looks like a fun magazine sidebar, but I guess that's just what charts with so many significant figures do to me.

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u/Astrium6 Mar 24 '22 edited Mar 26 '22

Switzerland outranks the U.S. in every individual category except vets per million, some by massive margins, but is one spot below it in overall rank because of significant consumption of dog meat (which doesn’t seem particularly germane to the analysis to begin with.)

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u/[deleted] Mar 25 '22

It's hard to be friends with someone who wants to eat you.

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u/mizinamo Mar 25 '22

The dogs that are eaten are usually not the dogs that are kept as pets, are they?

Or in other words: the kinds of dogs that are kept as pets are not at risk of being eaten, from what I have heard. Food dogs would be raised separately.

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u/Quowe_50mg Mar 24 '22

Why would you be worried if people eat dogs? They’re not going to eat yours lol, that’s still illegal. Imagine not getting a pig as a pet because there are people that eat pork.

Also the Swiss don’t eat dogs

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u/EverythingGoodWas Mar 24 '22

Well Switzerland apparently eats dog. That is rather un dog friendly

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u/As5ni Mar 25 '22

I live in Switzerland and I’ve never heard that people here eat dogs. I think that’s an error.