Animal Abuse?

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#2
Yeeeaaa... I don't think I agree with pretty much any of the description of the video. If that's "tormenting", "kicking", "punching", and "staggering", then... I need a vocabulary refresher.

Honestly it looks like the guy is roughhousing with the dog and the dog doesn't really look all that distressed to me. Maybe a little rough/over the top, but I've fake punched my dogs before, and that's kinda what it looks like he's doing - there doesn't seem to be any impact behind the "blows".
 

Fran101

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#3
I dunno..
the dog really doesn't seem all that scared or hurt by the "torment", it seems like the dog is just playing rather than being hurt...
I play with my dogs with my hands and feet a lot, and I guess from far away it would look like that because you wouldn't be able to tell I wasn't actually kicking or hitting with force, just kind of messing with them as part of the game.

Especially with larger dogs, people play roughly with them.. It's lots of wrestling and hitting and teasing and tug of war and nobody gets hurt but what happens if you lose control of the game is A LOT like what happened in this video. The human is like, ok i'm done, and the dog chases like WE ARE STILL PLAYING MY TURN MY TURN and people freak out and run and usually the dog gets more excited and chases

I see this at the park ALL THE TIME. People have no control over their dogs, play rough with them/wrestle and then get all offended when the dog turns to continue the game or get too rough with them in return, even if there is no aggression.

Should the guy have been messing with the dog? No. Do I think he is an idiot for "playing"/messing with a dog that way when he had no control over the dog? Yup
but I honestly don't think from the video he is a vindictive cold hearted animal abuser.. maybe just a dude who doesn't know squat about dogs.
 
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#4
Seriously, I can't stop laughing at the description of the guy "staggering" out from behind the trailer. He's like... jogging. LOL.
 

Fran101

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#5
Seriously, I can't stop laughing at the description of the guy "staggering" out from behind the trailer. He's like... jogging. LOL.
Ya lol
and if the dog were truly being abused.. why would the dog keep coming to him? he is even playing tug-a-war with the dog at one point.. the dog is free to move around, so why would this abused dog come play with him?

I think it was just that the game got out of hand and the dog got over-excited which scared him.

and if I was fined for every time I sprayed a hose or blew at Romeo's face.. I would be totally broke lol
 
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#6
Well....

The "punching" and leaning over the dog didn't look so hot. The kicking wasn't exactly forceful, and we're all going to jail* for playing tug or squirting a hose at our dogs.

*fined actually.
 

Red.Apricot

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#7
I'm pretty sure that when I play with Elsie, that's what it looks like. I don't think the words meshed with the video. How is playing tug tormenting the dog?

Was the dog injured? Because it really doesn't look like it.
 
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#8
Personally I like it being called tormenting the dog when he's playing tug with it.

Honestly, I felt like I was watching a completely different video. The person who posted it on FB seemed outraged, the 4 pages of comments were outraged. And all I saw was a guy messing around with a dog how I would with Kaylee or Traveler.

Dont' think he should have been doing it if it wasn't his dog and he didn't know it's temperament, especially if he doesn't know how to read body language really well. But come ON! Why would you turn away and push your foot backwards if you were "kicking" a dog. And why does the dogs head pretty much not move at all when it's "punched"

I hope no one every records me with my dogs or I'll be jailed, because I'm pretty sure I look way worse when I play with them
 

Kat09Tails

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#9
-.o from the way I see it this is a lesson of : don't screw around, you kids screw around too much.

Is it animal abuse? Hardly. Would I be upset if I were the property owner or contractor and this jackass was roughhousing with mine or a client's dog... Oh YEAH! I just don't think anything more than a stern talking to or kicking him off the jobsite would be warranted.
 

Xandra

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#12
From what it looks like, no not at all.

Blowing compressed air in the dog's face? Not animal abuse even if the dog didn't like it, and the dog wasn't even shying away from it, it's jumping at it, tail wagging (though I wouldn't say the dog looks particularly overjoyed... a bit hesitant maybe). I squirt from a nozzle in my dog's face (more like he jumps in front of it to bite the spray)... it comes out hard enough that I sure wouldn't want it sprayed on MY face lol, but Roman goes bonkers for it. I bet he'd like compressed air too, maybe I'll give it a shot lol.

As the reporter says "kicking AT" the dog... that could be animal abuse if he was making hard contact but it didn't look like it there. Just because a shoe is making contact with a dog doesn't mean the dog is distressed (and an animal being somewhat distressed is not cause for charges IMO). I slap Romans sides and hit him with the top of my foot sometimes, and I know lots of decoys use some pretty decent stick hits. Some dogs like it rough. Even if they don't sometimes there is a miscommunication between species... the human goes "I'M A MAN PLAY WITH ME LIKE A MAN, DOG," the dog goes "Meh, no thanks, not my style." Yes there's a limit but I don't think it was crossed here. Certainly the guy does not seem to be trying to hurt the dog.

The punching... that is where it starts to cross the line, it seems like he gets the dog a little too hard for it to be play. Still not animal abuse though IMO.

Honestly I think there was a combination of the guy wanting to play with the dog in a he-man fashion and a bit of teasing going on there. He certainly wants to play with the dog on some level because he is tugging with it.

Personally I think if they really want to fine the guy he should be fined on "dude you're an idiot grounds" rather than "omg the poor dog how dare he" grounds. But really, a visit to his house from the SPCA workers saying "hey, I see you got attacked by a dog there... we have video of you teasing it before it, you know, bit you. That was pretty dumb, do you agree? yes? yes. don't play with dogs like that again unless they are enthusiastically enjoying it. If you can't tell don't play with roughly at all. Go take your manly urges out on another man. It's better that way. good day." if they really felt there was a problem... charges? no. I hate how touchy feely and intrusive the law gets when it comes to companion animals.

ETA yeah, there were no posts when I started typing... I hate when that happens Lol
 
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#13
Wait.. what? That entire video was a guy playing with the dog. The dog obviously gets over stimulated when he "attacks" the person. Why the hell would he plead guilty to animal abuse? Making a note to never move there because they will hang me from the gallows when they see how I play with Shambles.
 
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#14
...

I feel like this is bordering on absurd. The guy is definitely playing roughly with this dog, and his body language sucks (leaning over, aggressive posturing), but I think it's quite a jump from inappropriate play to abuse. I agree that somebody should have a sit-down "you're an idiot" talk with him, but that's it.

Some of the comments are absolutely irate. I wonder if they even watched the same video that I did...?
 

Cheetah

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#15
It looks like a guy trying to roughhouse with a dog he didn't know and wasn't his, and he may have pissed off/aroused the dog at the end to where it did go after him. I don't see cruelty, just some guy being stupid and learning not to try and roughhouse with some random dog lol.
 

Saeleofu

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#16
It looks like rough play to me. I play rough with Gavroche ALL. THE. TIME. and he freaking LOVES it (Logan's more of a fetch and chase dog, not a rough housing dog, unless it's with other dogs). I could easily see Gavroche getting a little TOO into it and going ober the edge, but that's why I pay attention and don't let it escalate to that point - he gets too nippy or serious we stop for a bit. The "punch" didn't even look like it made contact.

I think it's ridiculous for them to make that much fuss over it. Sheesh.


ETA: When the dog bites, it's after he plays tug. My guess is he was guarding the tug. The dog won tug of war, the guy went to get the tug back, and NOPE.
 
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~Tucker&Me~

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#20
I think it was totally inappropriate and towards the end I don't think the dog was playing anymore, but I also don't know from the video whether or not the guy was just a total idiot or whether he had bad intentions. While parts of it seemed like really rough play, other parts went beyond the realm of play, imo. The whole interaction seemed pretty stiff and tense, also.

Too little info to go off of for me to feel strongly one way or another about what the guy was thinking.
 

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