What would you do?

I kind of put this little story to the back of my mind since Thanksgiving Day, but apparently it is festering there as I dreamed about it last night.

On Thanksgiving Day, my brother and the sister in law that I blogged about a while back, came over to my mother's as well.  The first thing out of her mouth was "I'm still upset about watching my mom's neighbor beat the hell out of his dog."  Obviously, this was meant to be a conversation starter.  The story was that her parent's neighbor, who is a twenty-two year old alcoholic (I don't know the guy, this is just what she told us), who had beaten the crap out of his girlfriend awhile back, resulting in her leaving, has a Jack Russell Terrier.  The little dog apparently got out of this guy's yard on Thanksgiving Day, and the guy spent "an hour" trying to catch it.  Once he did catch it, he proceeded to punch it in the face three times, then apologize to everyone who viewed this. 

Being who I am, which is a huge advocate of anything with fur, I asked "Did you report it?"  The reply from my brother was that they were afraid the guy would then take it out on his inlaws.  Does this feel wrong to anyone else?  Upon waking up this morning from dreaming about this poor little dog, the thought struck me of "What if it had been a child he was punching?"  Would that have changed whether or not this incident would have been reported and if so, why is it different for a dog?  Neither animal nor child can defend themselves against someone bigger and stronger than they are, so is it  just that a child holds a greater worth than a dog, or would it not matter to these people regardless because the result could still be that the abuser could potentially take it out on his neighbor? 

I can totally understand being concerned about this guy taking it out on the neighbor though.  Let's face it, we live in a strange world where being involved could possibly, at times, cost us our lives.  Think of the stories of the past of someone being in harm's way, screaming for help, and people ignore it because they "don't want to get involved."  However, with that being said, I think that attitude is exactly one of the reasons why our country is in the shape it is in today.  No one is willing to get involved as there could be repercussions.  I am not trying to be self righteous, but I do know for a fact that if this had been my neighbor, #1, I would have hollared at the moment the dog was being pounded instead of being a quiet bystander and #2 if that didn't stop it or possibly even if it did, I would have reported the incident to police and/or the Humane Society.  I would prefer to be worried about some vandalism to my home then to wake up one morning and find a little dog beaten to death and knowing I had done nothing to help it. 

As a society, we need to stop being so afraid of being involved.  We're so often quick to stick our noses in where they don't belong but painfully slow to speak up on behalf of someone unable to take up for themselves.  If more people spoke up, we would probably have less abused animals and children, but not wanting to "be involved" causes many to say "Well, it's none of my business anyway" and for a reign of terror to continue for someone. 

Some may say, "Well, it's just a dog" but in so many cases, that is only where it starts...abuse with animals can lead to violence with humans.