Solution. Ban all dogs. Doesn't that remind you of the attitudes some people have towards travellers and Black people and gays and members of the Jewish faith and quite a few other disadvantaged minorities?

And if it does, then thank God that some of us are sufficiently enlightened to realise that Blacks, Jews, Gays and Travellers are sensate emotive beings, and deserve to be treated as such. And if we can understand that, then pehaps we can understand that dogs and all other animals are sensate emotive beings also.

As someone who could possibly be characterised as anti-dog - though as I made plain I am not anti-all dogs, that is a horlicks of an argument Fred.

Some dogs have caused a nuisance at festivals by biting children, fighting in beer tents and in one case causing a miscarriage. Solution - stop dogs going to festivals, where many (as some dog owners have said) get confused, worried and as we know bite people. Or as I suggested, making a separate dog lovers area and charging accordingly).

That is all people are saying. NOT a blanket ban on dogs.

People have attested they are banned from such events in the USA - I was in Canada this year and they seemed to be banned from the Ottawa Festival and they are banned from Cambridge Festival. The world of dogs has not come to an end. (Though EVERY dog owner I saw in Canada had gloves and a bag to pick up their dog shit and I never ever saw a stray. Responsible dog ownership you might call it and I wish it were that good where I live).

So in answer to your question Fred, wanting to ban dogs at folk festivals does not remind me of racists and bigots at all and I strongly object to being characterised as one.