Thank You, Multiculturalism, For This!

Coun Taylor hit trouble when he was trying to book a taxi to pick up him and Henry from his mum’s office and drive them back to Mirfield.

“We rang lots of taxi companies in Huddersfield and not one would take a dog and me,” Coun Taylor said.

“None of them would bring him home so I had to come home by myself and leave the dog. He was crying and he was howling when I left him.”

Coun Kath Taylor’s colleague had to take the dog home later that day.

Which is fine, if you have relatives or friends with cars. Not so fine if you don't, or if it's an emergency, as the councillor points out.

Nor was he just unlucky.

That night, Coun Taylor rang 30 taxi companies asking if they would take his dog to the vets, and only two agreed.

I hope he's noted down those two for future reference. And I hope they grow and thrive due to the extra business thrown their way...

“What happens if you’ve not got a car and your dog has a heart attack in the middle of the night?” Coun Taylor said.

The law says that taxi drivers should allow pets unless they have a reasonable excuse, but Akooji Badat from the Kirklees Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Associations, said it was at driver’s discretion.

“I don’t have a problem taking dogs,” he said.

Now, clearly, this will be pooh-poohed as a minor matter to worry about, by the non-pet-lovers and the diversity approvists.

But I can't be the only one for whom it rings warning bells, surely?