Heard the one about Racist Dogs in Wales

exactly, and people like OP fall for it and propagate it.
The version of the article I read specifically ends with:

"A Welsh Government spokesman said: 'These comments are feedback from people who were asked their views and NOT proposals.
'There are NO plans to ban dogs from the countryside and any suggestion otherwise is inaccurate and a complete misrepresentation of the report.'

Although tbh I'd be quite in favour of a 'no dogs' area or 'no dogs' set time, or at the bare minimum a 'no dogs off lead' policy - several times some untrained hound has bounded up to me and put their muddy paws over my coat while their idiot owner shouts "don't worry he won't hurt you!" Don't care, still don't want them jumping at me, and if I was afraid of dogs, the "reassuring" by someone so ineffectual their own dog ignores their attempt at recalling them is hardly trustworthy.

My mum's late D-Dog (harmless Schnauzer we had from a puppy, so no bad experiences in his past) would bark at any black person he saw. It all started when an African lady on the street would walk past in the most beautiful, brightly coloured traditional African clothes & head dress(?) every day and it sent him wild. From that moment on he would woof a couple of times whenever he saw anybody of colour. I was so embarrassed. He was a really lovely dog though 🐾

My uncle had a dog, massive soppy great dane cross, that would react to the father of their neighbouring family. He would stand on the other side of the gate calling to my uncle in a shaky scared voice because he was scared of the dog. The dog couldn't see him over the 6 foot gate but he would go batshit crazy trying to get at him. Everybody jokingly said the dog was racist but I always thought the dog was just reacting like you describe. That massive beast was terrified of my aunties Yorkshire Terrier. Used to crawl under the kitchen table and refuse to come out.

My other auntie's yorkie was a true equalitarian. She hated fucking everyone apart from aunty. Do not dangle your elbow over the side of auntie's sofa if you want to keep your elbow, no matter what colour the skin on it happens to be.

Same as the café in the local park - everyone was delighted that no dogs were allowed, even to pop in to pick up a takeaway coffee. Until winter in the wind and rain and the only people in the park were the dog walkers who would loved to pick up a coffee while walking around. That decision was swiftly reversed.

If you walk in the park in the early morning or late evening you'll see just how many people walk the dog as their daily exercise, and rather sadly how many rely upon meeting other dogwalkers in the park to maintain a degree of social contact in their lives.

Parks are large enough for everyone to use - dog walkers, families with children, pedestrians, kids with balls, and even joggers. Everyone just needs to be sensible about it.

I live on the Gower Peninsula and it's very low diversity so have actually yet to see an ethnic person on any of my dog walks or hikes in years.

The ethnic minorities tend to live in or near Swansea city centre, Sketty etc and I only drive through those areas.

Was just about to say this. Loads of people replied and said either their dog is racist against black people or that they are black and dogs bark at them. I thought the OP was going to be shot down but it seems to be very much a thing. The people who get barked at said they weren't offended though as the dogs hadn't been trained to bark at them, they were just reacting to seeing a person who looked different to their owner.

As I understand it from the articles, a climate action group surveyed people from ethnic minorities who said they wanted more green spaces. So the recommendation is to create more allotments and dog-free areas. I can understand why people can see some dogs and walkers as a nuisance, but the link to race is unclear

"I hear you're a racist now Fido"

If it’s true that this is because dogs are considered unclean by Muslims, then IMO the result of this sort of bending over backwards is only likely to drive more people towards Reform.

Dogs are racist. Mumsnet had a thread all about it recently

No. 70s

What @Flumoxed said.

from Gransnet
According to a report submitted by Climate Cymru BAME, an environmental group, dog-free zones should be created in the country’s green spaces to make the outdoors more inclusive of minorities . The reason for this is not elaborated on in the report, which will be used by the Welsh Government to “support policy teams developing and implementing” anti-racist plans for rural Wales.

Are you from the 80s?

I think most parks should be dog free. Encourage people to get out and exercise a bit more.

https://www.gov.wales/anti-racist-wales-evidence-report-climate-cymru-bame-html

This gives the background and who did the report what methodology they used and what they concluded and what they recommend.

I did read the article. It is the article misinterpreting a few unrelated quotations and stirring it into something it isn't. My take on the article is that the welsh government is saying "let's look at ways to make open spaces more accessible to all. What are the current barriers?" One respondent says she doesn't like areas with lots of dogs. Daily Mail says the woman who says this is a Black woman, therefore the reason must be race related. She wasn't asked "what prevents black people from going on Wesh hillsides, she was asked what were her personal barriers.

If someone said areas with handrails on steps or paved paths would be useful for elderly people, wheelchair users or people with buggies, you can objectively see how having those things might make an area more inclusive. The question is how to get more people outside and this one comment she made about dogs has been extrapolated by the person who wrote the article to be related to race, rather than to inclusion, because she is black.

Exactly- sheep are a classic example of "white supremacy in black face".

Besides how many black sheep do you ever see in Wales. The farmers need to go on more DEI training that's for sure!

IMHO, saying African people hate dogs because ONE African person said they don't like dogs is racist, because its taking the opinion of one person and applying it to everyone in that group.

I have and love dogs (and am white) and totally get this - as a pp said - not all dogs but at least 2 of mine have been noticeably racist - very hard to train out of them as you can’t very well (and wouldn’t dream of) asking a black person to be your stooge. Also extremely embarrassing, and totally shit for whatever person is the other end - mine have only been barking etc.. (rather than biting) but horrible still - and unacceptable. I’ve also definitely met people who are non-white who are terrified of dogs and have (at least in part) explained it as part of a cultural difference. I think dog free zones are a good idea. All sorts of people are scared of dogs and they should know they can go out without having to deal with that all the time, or explain themselves.

@Anotherparkingthread "I can only think this has been made up to cause division.

Yep. As can be seen on this thread. So depressing.

I live in Wales. Don't think the WG wouldn't be daft enough to do this.

I can only think this has been made up to cause division. Anybody who is actually racist will jump on this much like the 'cwnt say Christmas anymore' nonsense that was pedelled a few years ago.

Banning dogs from certain spaces is a waste of time, electric bikes, mopeds and dirt bikes are banned from parks near me they are still there daily. The type of people who own problem dogs won't care at all about an unenforceable ban, you just remove safe sane normal people from those parks.

The whole concept is fucking stupid.

The problem with amplifying these ridiculous little bits of click bait is that they very quickly become fact in the minds of the hard of thinking and hand ammunition to racists. Soon it will have turned into "immigrants eat dogs" when it started out in a perfectly sensible attempt to find out why minority groups are less likely to access green spaces.