WP: Why are so many people so cruel to their dogs?

[Riggo-toni]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/11/08/why-are-so-many-people-so-cruel-their-dogs/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F3539ddb%2F61895afc9d2fda9d413ccb46%2F5972cc04ae7e8a1cf4afaedb%2F15%2F74%2F61895afc9d2fda9d413ccb46

 

It's a looooong article, but having fostered for rescues over the years, and more recently my wife bringing home two wonderful puppies who had been abandoned - tied to a box outside behind a trailer home in the  summer in Arkansas, horribly malnourished.  Wtf is wrong with people.

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Full story (stories, actually) at link

 

This, of course, identifies only the propensity for cruelty — but having a pet is elective. Why get a dog just to abuse it? If you talk to experts, and to the abusers, you get a constellation of answers, none entirely satisfying. To some people of limited means and meager possessions, dogs become a piece of property. If you think of an animal impersonally — as, say, a sofa — you are less likely to see it as being capable of physical suffering or having an emotional life. As property, they are something to be accumulated and guarded and abandoned at will, out there in the yard, among the rusty old cars, air conditioners, washing machines and toilets. That explains those “No Trespassing” signs in No-No Land. There are eerie echoes here, I realized: Tethered dogs, rendered desperate and neurotic, tend to do the same thing. The phenomenon is called “resource guarding” — they’ll defend their possessions ferociously, however modest they are. Abused dogs will sometimes resource-hoard their water.

Some other owners see their dogs as protection, but when you point out to them that the animals, restrained by eight-foot tethers, are pretty useless as protection, they’ll tell you, without guilt or apparent self-awareness — or further explanation — that at least they can be a burglar alarm.

Some tetherers breed dogs for status: Supposedly fierce breeds, like pit bulls, convey power. And finally, some people tether because their dads and granddads did, too. You tend not to question it. No malice is intended.

Nicholas Dodman, a veterinary behaviorist who co-founded the Center for Canine Behavior Studies at Tufts University, doesn’t buy the Darwinian argument, or all the ancillary explanations, which he sees as excuses for the inexcusable. This sort of cruelty, he says, is, at its dark core, a heartless character flaw: Some people suck.

Edited November 8, 2021 by Riggo-toni

[Warhead36]

There is a special place in Hell for anyone who abuses dogs. Its fine if you don't like them, they aren't for everyone, but don't adopt one and then put them through cruelty and torture. Those people deserve to burn in hell.

[CobraCommander]

[China]

7 hours ago, Warhead36 said:

There is a special place in Hell for anyone who abuses dogs. Its fine if you don't like them, they aren't for everyone, but don't adopt one and then put them through cruelty and torture. Those people deserve to burn in hell.

 

Yeah, I don't understand it.  If you aren't willing, or don't have the time, money, willingness and/or capability to care for and nurture an animal, why get one in the first place?

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Agreed...I LOVE other peoples' dogs...they are so fun to play with and I love how eager to please they are. I just don't have it in me to take them out a couple/few time per day and give them the exercise that they would need. I'd be a bad owner because I don't have that type of energy. I have spent that energy on my kids. But, at least I know that about myself to not cave into my daughter's constant pleas for a dog, because I KNOW she wouldn't take care of it. 

 

 

[mistertim]

I can tolerate a fair amount of things to varying degrees, but cruelty to animals is absolutely not one of them.

Edited November 9, 2021 by mistertim

[skinsmarydu]

2 hours ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

Agreed...I LOVE other peoples' dogs...they are so fun to play with and I love how eager to please they are. I just don't have it in me to take them out a couple/few time per day and give them the exercise that they would need. I'd be a bad owner because I don't have that type of energy. 

Agree.  That's why I herd cats.  (They don't need baths, either.)   I'd love a small dog, but I don't think the kitties would approve & they were here first. 😄

 

 

Edited November 9, 2021 by skinsmarydu
syntax

[PleaseBlitz]

17 hours ago, Warhead36 said:

There is a special place in Hell for anyone who abuses dogs. Its fine if you don't like them, they aren't for everyone, but don't adopt one and then put them through cruelty and torture. Those people deserve to burn in hell.

 

This sums up my thoughts, I have nothing to add to this. 

[mistertim]

9 hours ago, China said:

 

Yeah, I don't understand it.  If you aren't willing, or don't have the time, money, willingness and/or capability to care for and nurture an animal, why get one in the first place?

 

This is actually why I have two cats and no dogs. I'm a bit more of a cat person generally but I do like dogs as well. But I'm honest with myself and realize that I don't have the time or space to care for a dog, especially since I tend to be a fan of larger and more active breeds.

 

Unfortunately it seems pretty common for some people to get animals they think are cool without truly understanding what goes into caring for one. And then the end result is usually an animal in a shelter. 

 

Reminds me of those people who get wolf dog hybrids because they think they're cool but they don't fully get just how damn different that animal is from a regular dog.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Yep, we have 3 cats...not only don't they need nearly as much attention, they don't want our attention half the time. 

[Fan since a Fetus]

I’m not reading the article, I just don’t have it in me to do that.
 

I personally would like to torture these animal abusers. There was a guy I worked with and he came to work bragging that he ran over a deer with his airboat and sat on top of it until it drowned in the swamp. I was ****ing pissed. It’s one thing to kill it for it’s meat, but to torture it? I had to leave the room because I wanted to pummel the hell out of him. But, if I did I would have lost my job and the financial assistance I was getting for school. Everyone in the room knew why I left. This guy was bragging but everyone was disgusted by his story.

I’ve known other animal abusers as well, but mainly dogs. These guys typically seem like the macho tough guys and every single one that I have come across act tough until they get slapped in the face. I think it’s a power issue for them. These guys have also been mean to the women in their lives. Bossing them around and acting like they’re property. 
 

they like to pick on things that can’t defend themselves to make them seem macho. They’re just disgusting little pieces of ****.

 

Edited October 23, 2023 by Fan since a Fetus

[mistertim]

22 minutes ago, Fan since a Fetus said:

 

they like to pick on things that can’t defend themselves to make them seem macho. They’re just disgusting little pieces of ****.

 

 

This in general is something that's huge to me too. I absolutely cannot stand people who choose to pick on or abuse others because they know they can't or won't defend themselves, and that includes animals.

 

For me it's even worse when the cruelty and abuse is directed at a being that can't even understand what they did wrong or why they're being hurt; animals and children being the main examples.

Edited November 9, 2021 by mistertim

[Fan since a Fetus]

On 11/9/2021 at 11:42 AM, mistertim said:

 

For me it's even worse when the cruelty and abuse is directed at a being that can't even understand what they did wrong or why they're being hurt; animals and children being the main examples.

.

Edited October 23, 2023 by Fan since a Fetus