Horizon now, BBC2 - Anybody Else Watching it? Overpopulation/Water etc

Dogs are great; sometimes just like people, and certainly fine child-substitutes, but in most cases we can't afford/don't need them now. It's like surplus children.

If we are going to get a grip on people population, we should be starting with dogs, by phasing many of them out over the next ten years. The majority live in towns which is an unsuitable environment, though poop-scooping has helped to make them more acceptable. In my adult life, I have never lived anywhere beyond hearing range of howling dogs, left alone by owners whose lifestyles don't always allow for the attention an intelligent animal requires. Fortunately, they have never been next door.

This isn't the pet forum. I wouldn't post this on there! However, I'd still expect an amount of flak here. For LIR, and others, I'd add that (apart from the fact that it isn't going to happen) I'd be all for making exceptions where people register dogs as child substitutes, or where dogs are genuinely required in a working context, but for the sake of the dogs, I'd make ownership as tightly controlled as it is for guns.

Of course, if we did the above, it would give dogs a slightly higher profile than children, so maybe everyone's inalienable right to have as many as they'd like, often with a financial incentive, might be questioned more. People wring their hands over Karen Matthews and Baby Peter, but I think they are just the tip of a massive iceberg which won't be altered significantly without all of us accepting more of a curb on our rights and a much larger emphasis on our responsibilities.

Kids and dogs: everyone should have one or two, but even if you are Madonna, it should be one or t'other.

Now there's controversial!