If you read almost any of my non-video-game-or-movie-related stuff, you probably already know that I am a big fan of dogs and for the most part, like them more than I like most people. This story in Phuket has been blown out of proportion and a witch hunt and the public is crucifying this guy at least in part because he is a foreigner.
Mervyn Harding was put in jail after CCTV caught him attacking a dog at a minimart late one night in a small beach community of Nai Harn (awesome beach by the way.) He hit the old dog with a steel baton of sorts and was caught after police reached out to the local facebook community.
I hate it when people abuse animals, it brings out a real rage in me...but there is a critical part of this story that the media, and most of the "holier-than-thou" expats are ignoring.
According to Mervyn's testimony, this dog that simply wanders the streets for the most part, has been habitually attacking and bullying his own dog for a long period of time. Mervyn states that this made him very sad and angry and he felt as though he needed revenge.
Now don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that he should have done it, but when I think about what I would do if the same thing happened to my doggo, I might have killed the other dog.
The thing that doesn't make much sense is that I believe that if this dog (the one at the store that Mervyn attacked) had access to his dog in the first place, that kind of indicates that he was not looking after it properly. It is very well known that Thailand has a rather serious stray dog population and virtually no animal control system in place. Therefore, if you don't have a fenced in area, you can kind of expect confrontation from wild dogs that live on the streets and simply wander the area.
Also, if you attack a dog a long time after they actually hurt your dog, that dog doesn't even have any idea why you are hitting it. It learns nothing and the entire act of cruelty is pointless. It's kind of like popping your dog and yelling at it hours after it crapped on the floor.... It doesn't know why you are angry... you gotta catch it in the act.
Because my dog never leaves my property without me being a few steps away from it, this situation would never happen to me or her, however, the point of me writing this is the fact that the local community is rallying to have this guy imprisoned, fined, deported, and all sorts of other things that are just dumb. I mean, the guy as denied bail and I am aware of people that have killed another person and made bail in this country.
I can fully understand his rage about a dog that savaged my animal and I think most other dog owners can as well. Does that make what he did the right thing to do? Of course not. However, I can all but guarantee that if this was a Thai person that had done this.... it wouldn't have even been in the news at all.
