What horrible stories. I feel really angry and upset now.
I saw an old man whack his dog (for no reason) with his walking stick when I was a kid and I've never forgotton it. The dog was an old fat labrador and it looked at me with such sad eyes like he was begging me to help. It was awful. If I saw that again today, I'm not sure I could be responsible for my actions!

I have had to re-write that last sentence a couple of times as my previous attempts were unsuitable for Dogweb readers!

The ONLY time in my life that I have become violent with another person (unless you count fighting with my brother when we were little!) is because I've seen someone being cruel to an animal...

I was out horseriding one time and we passed a man with a GSD who was actually sitting calmly waiting for the horses to pass - just as the last horse was passing the man let this dog go, the dog went to follow the horses so the man lashed him hard across his back with his chain lead several times!!

I have to admit to losing my cool somewhat - rode back to the man and thwacked him with my riding crop... I suprised myself as I've never done anything like that before. All I hope is that the experience of me basically charging at him on a 16hh horse waving a riding crop around taught him a lesson that he won't forget in a hurry! I am still a bit ashamed of my behaviour but at the same time glad that I did something.

Way to go! :smt023
Very appropriate for any idiot who thinks they can abuse a defenseless animal just because they felt like it!

Hear hear. I'm no fan of violence - I think Gandhi had the right idea - but when I hear about someone hurting an animal it makes my fists clench up and I could easily stop being a pacifist.

I know - I'm the most laid back person usually but seeing somebody hurt a defensless animal just sets me off... obviously I save up all my anger for these moments!

Afraid I wanted to re-surface this thread as I had ANOTHER encounter with an idiot last night.....

I was crossing the road, and opposite was a man and his kids walking a puppy.

I say walking. I use the term loosely. This TINY puppy was on a harness and was absolutely TERRIFIED. It was stiff with fear. And the man (with his KIDS remember) was taking two/three steps then DRAGGING the pup behind him. I don't mean the pup was being stubborn and just sitting down - it was completely stiff.

I couldn't help myself again - I just shouted across to him to pick it up as he was scaring it to death. Quite literally by the looks of it He just glanced at me...

I was soooooo annoyed and upset. I was with a friend at the time, and apparently I just went bright red... Grrrrr...!

Some common sense wouldn't have gone asmiss - and what is he teaching his kids?!

It makes your blood boil over, doesn't it, Bodhi? Only that poor little pup is almost certain to grow up with behavioural problems and will then - at best - be rehomed because it's a "Bad Dog". At worst it'll be dumped.

What also horrifies me is people who claim to know about dog training yet reveal quite awful examples of how they do it. This happened on a general internet forum (not at all dog related) I belonged to where some chap had posted pictures of his dogs and then went on to tell a tale about the day that one of them had misbehaved while out on a walk. In order to make sure it didn't make the same mistake again he waited until they got home and, in his words, "gave it a damned good thrashing"! Everyone on this forum went bananas and the bloke was known as "The Dogbeater" from then on. But what sort of lesson could this poor dog have taken? Other than to fear and mistrust his owner?

some people are so evil to dogs. i just dont understand why they do what they do!!!! i would never hit my dogs i think the worst punishment they get off of me is being ignored for lik 2 mins

i luv my dogs too much to punish them!!!

It must of been very upsetting for you Bodhi. I bet you wanted to pick up the pup and take it away from the idiot.!!

Haha, yeah. Birkenhead is an absolute hole. Hopefully you'll find a nicer place on the Wirral to live than there.