In late February, a man in Lancaster County, Nebraska was filmed brutally kicking his dog in a gun store parking lot, in order to beat the pup into submission. Luckily, the store's employees were horrified by what they saw and called law enforcement.
Unfortunately,
the cops didn't care right away. They took one glance at the animal, suggested it didn't "look" injured on the surface (in their non-veterinary opinion), and said the man apparently hadn't beaten the pup badly enough to be held accountable. According to the police department's statement: "We do not believe the actions of the owner of the pit bull meet the statutory requirements to be able to cite him."
Will you stand with this poor, abused pup and demand stronger animal welfare laws to help him and other dogs?This man even publicly ADMITTED to abusing his dog when talking to TV reporters! According to him, kicking his pet dog was just an example of providing "physical discipline," and he said he did it because the pup "was acting like a total a**hole."
Thankfully, store employees decided to speak out for the animal and released the footage online for all to see. They even confronted this dog abuser in the parking lot to try and intervene, but to no avail at the time.
The only thing that's made a difference so far is public uproar. One week after the video was posted online and people found out about the cops' indifference, the police department
suddenly changed its tune and decided to cite the man for animal cruelty. However, they did
not remove the dog and place it in a safer home.
After everything that's happened, we can't trust them to actually keep this animal or any others safe. Who are these cops who don't care about animals? Why were they willing to let this
admitted animal abuser get away with such crimes in the first place?
It's clear that Nebraska needs MUCH tougher animal welfare laws in order to both prevent people from harming their animals,
and to prevent cops from pretending they don't need to intervene. If the laws protecting animals are stronger, there's no excuse for police to not step in.
Sign the petition to urge Nebraska lawmakers to pass tougher animal protection laws now!