The social benefits of pet ownership are manifold

National Review, Sept 1, 2008

The social benefits of pet ownership are manifold. Dog owners are specially blessed by the extra opportunities a daily walk affords for greeting, meeting, chatting, and flirting. It is apparently the flirting that most alarms Saudi Arabia's religious police, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

They have begun enforcing a ban on the sale or public walking of cats and dogs in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. Mr. Othman al-Othman, district enforcer for the CftPoVatPoV, told a regional newspaper that young men were "using cats and dogs to make passes at women and pester families." It is encouraging to see that the edict is meeting with much scorn from urban Saudis, who have taken to pets in a big way in recent years. Many have pointed out that Muhammad himself was fond of cats. Whether he used them as an aid to flirtation, it would of course be improper to speculate.