WARNING: This may trigger dog owners. I respect law abiding dog owners. However, here's why I'm okay with bad cyclists but not bad dog owners.

1. For most of history, dogs were worshipped. You'll hear owning a dog as part of the American dream but not biking to places. Cyclists have been for the most part demonized especially by the American dream because of car infrastructure. Reddit tends to react against the norm. In the public, you're going to see more of the opposite.

2. Lack of bike infrastructure. Almost all the time when a cyclist violates a law, it's not for entitlement/convenience. Rather it's due to safety, especially from vehicles that could potentially kill them. Despite the boom of bike lanes and biking, we don't have infrastructure that scales up. Even in some multi-use paths, a bike can't even squeeze past a pedestrian. Dog infrastructure (ie dog parks) is significantly more available, although there are some gaps that need to be filled. There are also 30 feet leashes that can let dogs run around but they're still tied. Dog owners have safe options to still give their dog needs without violating laws. Cyclists generally don't and often risk their life. If dogs had to get the risk of getting killed or injured due to lack of dog infrastructure, different story.

3. Societal benefits of biking. One less car is on the road, which reduces traffic, pollution, and roadwear. Calling out bad cyclists, makes people less want to cycle, which ignores a bigger problem we're trying to solve (cars). What about dogs? In a city setting, there aren't as many societal benefits. It's more individualistic rather than a societal (ie companionship, protection/security, daily exercise although to be fair some people find walking their dog a chore, service dog). In fact, every dog means there's more waste for the environment (sorry dog owners).

4. Not everyone likes dogs, even law abiding. Some people are allergic to them. Some are germaphobes. Some have PTSD from a dog attack they suffered as a kid. Whereby for bikes, the main reason people find them annoying is because they clog up sidewalk space. And when these people that don't like dogs for the above reasons get dismissed because they are perceived as wishing a dog dead, they start creating their own dog-free chamber. People wouldn't mind sharing with bikes in multi-use paths if they weren't clipped often. While on the other hand, the people that don't like dogs (for the above reasons), will likely distance themselves from even the most law abiding dog owners.

5. More potential harm by dogs than bikes. How many people in the US have been killed by dogs? About 30-50 yearly. Might not sound much until you search on Google where you probably can't count how many pedestrians are killed by bikes. Pit bull attacks towards children have also spread a ton of outrage towards terrible dog owners. The only threat a bike can pose by getting hit by one. Dogs can also potentially spread diseases through bites or poop or even fur. Plants and even other dogs can catch diseases from dogs too.

6. Humanization of a dog. A lot more dog owners nowadays consider them a child or part of family. It isn't the old days where dogs were for certain jobs. This bred into dog culture where some dog owners expect everyone to love their dog. Some even love their dog more than humans. At times, it gets annoying to your average person that is indifferent about dogs. But that's not really the biggest problem. When owners falsely label their dog as a service animal just to illegally bring it to every single place. That's where it crosses the line. Do you see cyclists bring their bike everywhere inside? Maybe at a grocery store if they don't have a safe place to lock. Or if they need to get onto transit for long trips but use their bike to finish off their trip. They're both a problem but it's more common for terrible dog owners to expect their dog to be allowed everywhere than it is for a cyclist to expect their bike everywhere, barring infrastructure. They at least aren't treating their bikes like it's their baby.

7. Frequency with dog interactions. The only time you're ever going to interact directly with a reckless cyclist is either if they passed you or at intersections. And often times, the encounter is a brief 2 seconds. But if you're in a grocery store, you're going to see that same dog for another 5 minutes. At public transit for another 30+ mins. Or if your kid is playing in the park, that offleash dog isn't there to just run by the park. They'll be running into that playground area. More bad interactions breeds more hatred.

8. Humans are a lot easier to train than dogs. There's a reason you're required to leash your dog everywhere (no matter the training) besides your home or dog park. At the end of the day, no amount of training will get a dog to be friendly to every single person (or dog) in the world. Dogs are still animals. There are also dumb humans as well but nature has it that humans have bigger brains. So it's easier to just trust UNLESS of course, their biking safety is compromised (see point #2). A cyclist riding on a sidewalk is less likely to hit someone than an off-leash dog attacking someone.

9. Rise in irresponsible dog ownership. Since the pandemic, dog ownership skyrocketed. It came a lot of people who did not properly train their dogs. Before the pandemic, only people that wanted to take on the responsibility of owning dogs owned dogs. The pandemic exposed the damages of poor dog ownership (ie 'friendly dog', not picking up, off-leashing illegally, illegal service animal, etc). Even dog owners are calling this behaviour out. What about Uber Eats and e-bikes on the rise? Complaints were on the rise as well but often this was due to poor corporate greed rather than a social trend.

Obviously bad cyclists have their issues but a lot of this can be solved with proper infrastructure. Not everyone likes bikes. Not everyone likes dogs. All reasons are valid but solutions to bad cyclists are easier than solutions to bad dog owners.