Cruelty Begets Violence

Today a man walked past me dragging a headstrong puppy on a leash this raised a wry smile from me being that I was once young and headstrong and I never liked being held back.
I also like dogs especially pups, I also felt a tad sorry for the guy trying to control the dog as it was a big sized dog even for one so young. But my sympathy for the guy abruptly evaporated when he neared the traffic lights and the dog wanted to pull forward onto the road. The man yanked the dogs chain with such force it pulled the dogs neck half way around, I thought that was out of order but it was a headstrong dog so I bit my lip, but there at the lights in front of passing cars he took his anger and frustration out on the dog as it tried to pull forward yet again. The guy hoists the animal off the ground by the leash so as it dangled in mid air he hit it hard more than once, the pup spun on the leash like a pinata it reminded me of a wild west hanging but this was no murderous outlaw but a terrified young dog yelping in pain and fear.

I said whoa man take it easy on the dog there's no need for that don't be cruel, he looked at me with his beady little eyes and snarled back what the fuck has it got to do with you it's my dog and I can do what I like with it. He was right it was his dog but the hitting bit I had a problem with, so again I tried to reason with him if only for the dogs sake it was worth a shot.
I said try teaching it with a bit kindness or a treat, because cruelty never works. He spat back his not so positive retort something to the lines of fuck off dickhead or I'll smash you like I just smacked the dog and with this he put the poor dangling dog back on waiting pavement and eyeballed me with pure bad intent.

Now I admit I felt threatened he was a tough looking nut but lucky for me I am no puppy dog on a leash and if you invade my personal space then my cat like survival instincts kick in. I can only assume that my appeals to his better nature of non cruelty on his dogs behalf made me seem a little bit on the soft side shall we say, but first impressions can often be misleading, still snarling and eyeballing me he pressed his forehead practically against mine and aggressively growled Come on then !

Sometimes in this world actions speak louder than words and a neatly timed fast punch to the side of the head saves a whole lot of time and unneeded conversation, as he looked up at me from off the pavement with that what the fuck just happened expression plastered over his now not so threatening face, I showed him my fist and said quite coldly these are my knuckles mate and I can do with them what the fuck I like, you ever hit that dog again and you'll be sorry, and just to mess his head up a little bit more I said cruelty Begets violence. i know that violence is never the answer but in certain circumstances like this I guess it is, at that moment the traffic lights turned to green and a load of honking horns and a cheer snapped us back into the moment, the guy now was back on his feet looking a bit shaky and his dog was now barking at me in a fair show of protection for his dubious owner, a point the guy failed to notice but it wasn't lost on me.

So I said you know what mate, you beat that dog and nearly strangled it and yet it is still trying to defend you that's loyalty you've got a good dog there try treating the fucking thing a bit better, at the moment he took his eyes off me and looked at his dog and patted it with genuine affection and hopefully a lot of guilt then he looked back at me and just nodded, nothing else was said and we parted ways, today's life lesson was over in this the fabled land of Birkenhead 😁