Don’t shame cruel dog owner – police
...as she may be upset by pics of her hanging pet!
AN animal lover who shamed a ‘cruel’ dog walker online was told by police to remove her photo of the pet being carried by its collar – because it had upset the culprit.
Mother-of-three Lena Black was ‘disgusted’ to see the Jack Russell hanging by the neck and confronted the owner.
She later shared what had happened on Facebook – only for the police to demand the pictures be deleted because the woman had complained.
Mrs Black, 36, had taken her family to Belhaven Beach in Dunbar, East Lothian, last month when she saw the owner walking three dogs.
She said the woman became agitated when one of her Jack Russell terriers went in the sea – and retrieved it by picking the animal up by its collar. Mrs Black confronted the woman about the ‘cruel’ treatment and took photos of the dog dangling by its neck.
The full-time mother from Linlithgow, West Lothian, said: ‘It’s disgusting. No dog should be treated that way. It must be traumatising and will choke the dog. I was concerned for the dog’s safety.
‘She grabbed the dog by the collar and walked with it and then let it go and it came running up towards me.
‘She thanked me for stopping the dog. The dog was happy to stay with me and was enjoying being petted.
‘I said that I loved dogs and do not like people being cruel to them, “So please do not lift your dog up by its collar”.
‘She just made a face and picked the dog up by its collar again and started walking away so I took the pictures of her. It was very arrogant.
‘She carried the dog like that for two or three minutes, it was very cruel – it must have been in pain. I passed her car number plate to the Scottish SPCA.’
Mrs Black shared the photos on Facebook and her post was shared and reacted to more than 2,300 times.
She said: ‘Everyone was raging. I had loads of messages from people wanting to know what had happened to her.’ But Mrs Black was stunned when police contacted her. She said: ‘I was shocked by the way the police dealt with it. The officer even said he was a dog lover. Haddington police station phoned and asked me to take the post down.
‘The police said she had been in and complained about the post, that they had no concerns over the dog and that she had grabbed the dog like that because kids were throwing stones in the water.
‘They said it was the only time she had done it and would never do it again. But those photos are of the second time she has done it – I saw her do it minutes before that when stopping the dog going in the water.’
The images have been removed from her Facebook page.
Mrs Black said: ‘It would not surprise me if this was how she often handles it. I don’t think me sharing it has done anything to put her off doing it again, especially now she’s been able to have the post taken down.’
Police Scotland said East Lothian officers contacted Mrs Black after a ‘report of concern for content posted online’.
They said the incident was not a criminal matter but both parties were ‘spoken to and suitable advice was given’.
The Scottish SPCA said it had no record of the incident but the charity’s deputy chief superintendent, Tom Gatherer, said: ‘At all times we stress the importance of responsible pet ownership.’
‘Traumatising and will choke the dog’ ‘Pet must have been in pain’