I just had an unpleasant experience on my daily walk round the allotments. A woman was on the same path as me, jogging towards me. As she neared me, I realised that something wasn't okay, that she was running with more than a normal spring in her step. A few feet away from me, I caught her expression. Terror. I've honestly never seen such a vivid look of fear. I heard the sound of dog behind her, but she, and a parked car, obscured my vision. She ran past and I half wondered whether a dog would jump at me from behind the parked car. Instead, I heard whimpering. The owner of the dog I still hadn't seen appeared. I got to point where I could see what was happening. The dog, a small one, had a rabbit in its jaw and was mauling it. The owner stood further away from the scene of the crime than me, saying, 'I can't do anything about it." It was only when I continued staring at him that he did do something - something he clearly could have done much sooner if he'd wanted to, because he managed to stop his dog chewing the rabbit with one simple move. The rabbit writhed and kicked its back legs. "Now it's going to die," the dog owner announced. I'm not sure if was trying to reassure me, or himself. Probably himself. "Yes, it is isn't it," I agreed hoping he understood sarcasm. And sure enough, the rabbit kicked twice more and was dead. I turned and walked away, relieved the animal had died so quickly. "Now look what you've done, you've killed a bunny rabbit,"the man told his dog.
In the wild, animals kill each other. On the streets, their owners should put them on a lead and stop them doing this kind of thing. The path by the allotments? It's the same as the street... I ended walking away feeling as if I'd witnessed a bit a street violence rather than a natural happening in the wild. And my problem isn't with the dog, it's with the man who owns it.
