I'll bet you wait for a lot of things so you can jump up and down. Dog ownership, or guardianship, or whatever you want to call it so you don't jump on one word and create some straw-man argument over one word, is a privilege, not a right. In cities especially you're surrounded by people who don't have any connection to your dog- an animal that's the product of thousands of years of human domestication- and you have no right to make them accomodate your dog's unchecked bahaviour. Running off leash in public isn't OK the same way driving drunk isn't, or yelling "fire!" in a crowded theater- because you're adversely effecting the people around you.

If you think dogs deserve to run around off leash because their domesticated animal spirit demands it, then you can either choose to let it run around where it can't cause any problems, like at a dog park, or accept the fact that people, or other animals- maybe actual wild animals- have the right to treat your dog as it is- an animal under no visible means of control.

And Chephy- if a dog was coming after my cat and looked like it wanted to kill it (dogs kill cats you know, I've seen it happen several times), if the only thing I could do to stop it was kick it as hard as I could and risk mortally injuring it, I would, and I would have every right to. Why? Because I have the right to protect my cat (who doesn't need to be on a leash because, you know, cats don't kill little kids and other animals) from a loose dog. I wouldn't want to ever kick a dog, but dogs do kill cats, and if that's all I could do it would be the owners fault, not mine.