Attacking dogs while on horse back was not one of my favorite things when I had horses. It happens a lot more than you might think. Though, the cop probably could have laid off once the own came to grab the dog.
Oh yeah, and the cop might have saved the dog from getting its head kicked in. Horses can kill smaller animals (hell people and larger animals if placed correctly) with a swift kick.
Looking at that video, I’m pretty sure the cop wasn’t concerned about the dog’s safety.
I’m a cyclist and I’ve seen way too many injuries caused by unleashed dogs that the owners swear are friendly and mean no harm.
I’m totally on the side of the cops on this one.
Did y’all watch the video?
That last hit was for fun.
Fucking monsters.
No, I don’t think he was either, but that dog was really in danger of having its head caved in. I’m sorry the dog was abused, the cop was a dick who really could have reacted less erm…enthusiastically, but all the same better than a solid hoof with 1500lbs. behind it.
It’s up to the owner to control their animal. One of the sweetest (if not the sweetest) dog we ever had had a bad case of fear-aggression when we rescued him. And the agression was 99% directed at dogs that were bigger than he was. Since he was a dachshund, most other dogs were bigger than him. We had to be super careful with him. If the other owner were o.k. with it, we’d let the dogs slowly interact, and usually Luc would be o.k. once he could smell and dog and know it was o.k. Once a dog was “o.k.” he rarely had an issue with it again.
But this meant we had to always be on guard and never let him off leash.
At exactly what point in the video is this hit? Is it at the 23 second mark?
No kidding. I had a Quarter Horse (otherwise sweet-tempered and mild-mannered) who hated dogs, ever since his breeder’s Aussie shepherds had fun trying to bite his nose when he was a foal, and he’d at the very least pin his ears whenever a dog came close to him. I’ve seen him trot over a small dog, kicking as he went (luckily the dog dodged injury), and chase a Doberman the length of an arena with murder in his eyes. If that cop’s horse, frightened and angry at being bitten, had lashed out with a kick, the dog would have been lucky to get off with a few broken bones.
Ooo, horses don’t usually like to step on soft wiggly things.
Not unless they’re trying to kill them.
I slowed the video down to 25% and watched that part full screen, and it was not possible to tell if the baton connected or not, that part of the dog was hidden by the officer. And if, as it appeared, the owner finally got a leash on the dog, why did he take the dog back towards the officer with the baton?
I have to agree, my sympathy is with the police officers. Clearly that dog owner has nothing like any control over that dog, which should have been on a leash. Even after being hit once by the officer’s baton, the dog still came back and was very aggressive towards the horse. I have no sympathy for that dog owner (sympathy for the dog, for being so poorly trained and not being taken care of by its owner, though).
Look up the etymology of riding roughshod.
Yeah, I’m with the cops on this one. Even after the dog got hit the first time, it came back for another go at the horses. If one of the horses had gotten loose, who knows what might have happened? And the asshole owner obviously didn’t have a good grip on the leash…if there even was a leash.
Heck, even today horses are sometimes shod with threaded holes in the shoes for screwing in what’s called studs: more or less raised knobs to improve their traction over slippery ground. Bad enough to be kicked by a horse; worse if the horse is shod with, say, grass studs.
Oh, yeh, and horses generally have to be trained to ride roughshod over someone; as Sylvanz points out, they would otherwise try to avoid stepping on something squishy.
But they can be taught.
Disagree. If the officer hadn’t been there to swing again, the dog would surely have gone after the horses again.
A similar incident from last year in the UK, except the cops are both mounted and can’t easily dismount during the chaos; if they could, I expect they would have been going after the dog with batons in the same way the US officer did. Bystanders are trying to get the dog to back off, but of course nobody wants to get horsestomped.
Nevermind. Comment removed because it was a little too far over the limits.
But I regret that I could not use the word “horsesplain”
What limits? You’re in the pit.
I care about both dogs and horses, my comment was very horse-centered.