Lately he’s been sporting a dapper Marriage Equality bandana around his neck.

I’m not generally a fan of putting clothes on animals — and the fact he’s been periodically chewing it off and burying it under the hedge, only to have it returned to its rightful place on his ruff makes me wonder if perhaps I’m one of those Yes bullies we keep hearing about.

Nevertheless, he seems to have upped his pat count on walks since donning it, so I think he’s happy enough.

This week he spent the night at the dog sitter’s house because my husband and I were going to be out late at an event.

Yesterday she took him for a walk in the mid afternoon at McIvor Reserve in Yarraville, in Melbourne’s west. Dogs are allowed off leash while sports aren’t being played.

Mack was running around the oval and approached a man walking alone. He didn’t rush him or jump on him, but to my dog sitter’s absolute astonishment, the man did what thankfully turned out to be a fresh air kick at Mack.

He then turned to our dog sitter, abusing her with homophobic slurs. He called her a “perverted f***king poofter”, a degenerate and dangerous, while referencing the same-sex marriage survey.

Our dog sitter would stand in the path of a train if it meant looking after a dog, and judging by her description of the language she used in response, I think it’s fair to say she held her own during this unpleasant encounter.

But honestly Australia, have we really reached the “shouting at dogs” stage of the marriage equality debate. How did we get here?

Unlike many on the No side, who seemed gleeful at the prospect it might have been a Yes campaigner who made a ham-fisted attempt to “nut” Tony Abbott in Hobart last week, I am not for a second going to equate the way this ninny behaved with the No campaign as a whole.

I would not want them to do that to the side I am voting with, but sadly that ship has well and truly sailed.

I suspect that most No voters either just need a bit more time to come to terms with how quickly society is changing and progressing, or they have religious objections which like so many matters of faith, are impervious to logic.

Equally, I believe most Yes voters just think everyone should have the same rights, including to marry. They don’t want gay people to have to use another word for marriage, any more than they would want Rosa Parks to accept a seat at the back of the bus on the grounds that it’s still a seat.

And yet here we are — where an idiot in a park seems to be labouring under the misapprehension that a dog can tie a bandana around his own neck, and may decide to put his paw print in the No box if only he’s kicked hard enough.

Like Pollyanna, I honestly thought we could have a respectful debate on this issue — perhaps because I am straight, and have never been the subject of prejudice or abuse — but I’ve never been more convinced I was wrong about that.

After all, if we can’t agree that dogs shouldn’t be the subject of abuse for their owners’ beliefs then what hope is there?

Claire Sutherland is acting editor of RendezView.