I keep hearing the expression: “They work like dogs”, or
“They work me like a dog”, but is this expression really apropriate? I’ve known
many dogs in my day, and none of them were particularly hard workers. They
mainly laid around on the floor, ran around and played, slept and ate. And most
of the dogs I see to this day are the same way.
I mean, look: I know that there are some dogs who have jobs.
There are service dogs, and they work. But do they really work like dogs? Or do
we say they work like dogs simply because they are dogs? (They seem to me to work like people.) What
about service cats? Do they work like dogs?
And there are also drug-sniffing dogs, of course. But they
just sniff drugs all the time. Drug addicts do the same thing, and they don’t
consider it work, I don’t think. No, that’s really more like partying. And how come
dogs are allowed to sniff drugs when it’s illegal for the rest of us? Just
because they work like dogs? That’s speciesist!
