Trigger warning: animal abuse.

One of the biggest joys of living on Earth is taking a moment to appreciate the other species that roam our home planet with us. Whether that means tuning into the songbirds in the trees on your walk to work or watching the sheep in fields as you drive by, there are animals all around us, all capable of putting smiles on our faces. It’s no wonder that people spend so much money visiting safari parks and even using binoculars to spot exotic animals in the wild: the world’s creatures are beautiful, and we’re lucky to encounter them.

Of course, many of us don’t have to go to the zoo or the park to see animals, since many of us keep them in our homes. Whether you have cats and dogs or snakes and fish, we love our pets and they love us back. For the most part anyway. Because pet ownership is a huge responsibility. While a pet is just a small part in the grand scale of your life (though in the moment they can feel fundamental to your happiness) you are everything to them.

Just like a child, a pet depends on you, since it does not live in the wild and can’t therefore take care of itself. This also means that you must be there during the best and worst time – for your pet and yourself. And when the time comes, you should be there at the end of your pet’s life too – because after they gave you so much unconditional love and loyalty, you owe them that, at least.

Some people, however, do not take this seriously. For some people, an animal is a possession and nothing more. And for those people, pet ownership shouldn’t be recommended. Then, there are people who are so unhinged that they are a danger to animals – and likely to humans too. The poor guy in this story is friends with one such person, and the unhinged acts of animal cruelty he is bearing witness to are beginning to leave scars.

Some of the acts of animal cruelty in this story are quite upsetting. Please be aware of this as you decide whether to read on.

Am I overreacting by thinking that my friend’s family isn’t suited to having pets?

My friend lives with his parents, his younger brother and their old dog. (They also have a cat but this isn’t relevant.)

The dog is really old and has cancer in both eyes. The family for this reason has considered putting the dog down for the last few months but ultimately decided to wait a while, since the dog hasn’t been showing heavy signs of discomfort.

I understand contemplating putting the dog down for this… however yesterday I heard from my friend the dog had bitten my friend’s brother and growled at his dad, and now they’re going to put the dog down for that.

The dog’s temperament has always been gentle and patient, so this is out of the blue.

Yikes. Let’s see why this has sparked this friend’s concern.

I didn’t want to ask around too much but from an outside perspective, it seems to me that the brother could have overstimulated the dog (he’d apparently been roughhousing and playing with the dogs face prior to the bite) and not seen the body language warning.

Considering the dog is also basically blind, I’m imagining the brother could have taken the dog by severe surprise and triggered the fight response, and he then growled at the father because he was unable to identify him due to poor eyesight.

I feel like this is a disastrous misunderstanding of animal behavior, but I will take it that a dog that bites is a dangerous thing to have around. So I suppose that’s a good enough reason to put the dog down.

I just think that the dog’s physical issues contributed to this and is probably a blunder on the owner’s part, not the dog.

But there was more to this guy’s concern than just this one incident.

Last year, two stray puppies showed up on their doorstep and after a few days, instead of driving out to a shelter to hand the puppies in, the father’s solution was to take them out to the yard in a box and do away with them.

Fortunately, this didn’t happen, but what DID happen was that they drove out several miles and dumped them on the side of the road so that they wouldn’t be able to return.

Another thing that happened was that in 2024 another stray dog showed up on their doorstep and because it had worms, the mother’s solution was to have the dad off it to end the suffering.

The dog ended up disappearing on its own though.

And the worst was yet to come.

And then last year, the thing that threw me off a lot was when I was sent images of a dead and skinned raccoon that the brother had apparently taken out in the yard.

Reason being? He’s never done it before and he wanted to for apparently like… no reason. My friend also claims to love raccoons and I just can’t fathom why he’d be so happy to have his brother off one for absolutely no reason.

They live on the literal edge of the woods so actually within the natural habitat of the animal, which wasn’t causing any trouble. My friend however seems to have no issue with having his favourite animal butchered in front of him just for fun.

My friend’s also constantly looking at places he can buy exotic animals as pets but seems to move onto the next thing as soon as he gets a new idea.

But there were other warning signs too.

I also find it weird that he constantly refers to pets as “it” instead of more personal pronouns.

Its a small thing to get stuck on, but any person that loves their animals will usually use ‘she’ or ‘he’ instead of ‘it’ for their pet.

It just feels to me that this family doesn’t really value animal life at all and makes little effort to care for them?

Am I wrong in thinking this mindset isn’t right for animal owners? Am I overreacting?

The case of the family dog is – to some extents at least – vaguely understandable. Some societies go by the notion that if a dog bites it needs to be put to sleep – something that is untrue, since behaviour can be trained.

But the abhorrent animal abuse in the stories that followed really showed this family for what they are.

And really, this guy should be questioning whether he wants to be friends with them at all – right as he reports them to the authorities.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who found a trail cam on her property and decided to develop the pictures.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.

This person agreed that the family needed reporting.

While others were horrified by the family’s attitude to animals.

Meanwhile, this Redditor thought he should walk away immediately.

The way that this family have no regard for the lives of these animals is absolutely abhorrent. Every one of these creatures that they’ve threatened or actually murdered was a life that they have taken – or threatened to take – for what? Their own amusement? Convenience? Egos? They have no right at all to kill or maim another creature, and the brazen way in which they do so is serious red flag material.

It’s one thing considering getting your dog euthanised if they are suffering from a terminal illness, especially if their quality of life is affected. But to provoke a blind dog until it bites you, and then use that as an excuse to end it’s life? Absolutely unacceptable. But it is their attitude to stray and wild animals that is truly sickening, and cruel.

They could have helped the puppies. They could have helped the stray dog. Instead they threatened them and abandoned them, instead of just calling a shelter like any sane person would. But it is the violent murder of the raccoon that is the most heinous of their crimes – because let’s be clear, animal abuse is a criminal offence.

It shows how truly unhinged every one of them is – they are certainly not people to spend another second around.