Couldn't agree more MissJulsie. And actually if anyone mistreated pets under my roof it would be the last thing they did there.

Absolutely agree with this.
These people who make all kinds of excuses as to why their s/kids beat up or injure their pets make me sick.
They rank as disgusting as the kids in my book and should be reported for animal cruelty.

I agree with this post 100pct.  No excuses.  Animals should be protected.  I'm lucky in that sense, my SD was/is an animal lover and was always kinds to my pets.

Animals, the elderly, and babies. Anyone who mistreats is a POS.

Thankfully, my SS loves my dog and she loves him. She used to prefer sleeping in his room, even after he PAS'd out.  

This was the only time I ever laid a hand to Leech. she was about 14 at the time and my cat was laying out in the yard enjoying the sunshine. I looked out the window and saw Leech pick up a stick and hit my cat. I went into a complete rage, went out side, grabbed the stick out of her hand and hit her across the butt about four times, screaming at her. "how do you like it" with each swing. When DAH got home, she went boohooing to him, lied through her teeth, saying she didn't do anything. DAH is a bigger animal lover than I, he didn't believe her and told her that if he ever saw her hurting another animal that he would beat her ass until she couldn't sit for a week.

I absolutely hate anyone that would allow an animal to be abused, if you see animal abuse and don't call or take action, you are no better than the abuser.

I’m not sure what is wrong with these parents that they allow their kids to sit on and torment the family dog by pulling on its tail, ears etc and punching and kicking it when they are angry. If it was anyone else’s kid who did this to their pet they would go nuts and not be ok with it so why is it ok that your child does it? Believe me I thought about taking step dog with me but my ex fought me on it. I wonder who is walking the dog now since I’m the only one who did so? It sure wasn’t those lazy brats. 

Thus, they are better judges of people than we are.   Prior to my dogs' passing away, they made it clear they wanted nothing to do with SD whenever she came over.  She never did anything to them but they SENSED she was not a nice person.  They were right.

In fact, my one dog made a habit of hiding out in the basement family room for the duration whenever SD arrived.  Wouldn't even come upstairs when she knew dinner was cooking (a usual source of interest for her!)

When SD got married to box-o-rocks hubby, they immediately went out and got two puppies.  Which they proceeded to stick in cages for most of the time.  Both my SO and I visited and SD acted like she was so "put upon" because the dogs were not trained properly and she had to keep them in cages in an empty bedroom.  All they did was let them out on their raised wooden deck, which was covered with old feces and urine stains since they didn't have a fenced yard.  Too lazy to take them out for a proper walk, let alone spend time training them and paying attention to them.

Now the two of them are about to become parents.  It was no surprise that SD had on her baby registry not one, not two, not three, but FOUR types of "play" chairs/bouncers in which you can contain an infant so they can amuse themselves.  Between sticking the dogs in cages all day, and putting the baby in a play chair, she can continue her life of uninterupted self-absorbtion.

Those dogs (and the baby) will make oh-so-cute photos for her picture-perfect Instagram life, but all the poor creatures, including the baby, will be neglected.  

Anyone who abuses an animal should get an eye for an eye. Due to lifestyle reasons with demanding careers where we are rarely home, we sadly do not have a dog. I know that someday I will. We instead have two tortoises - and they are very loved! I will say, Skids have the same appreciation for animals that we do. In fact, every time BM annoys me, I try to think of a story DH told me about her. There was a huge turtle in the road by their house, one time back when they were married. She called DH made him drop everything and move him safely off the road. Not a lot of people would do that, but that is one thing BM and I have in common. And one of the SD's had a bearded dragon. So they get that all animals are loveable including reptiles! If anyone hurt one of our turtles I can't imagine what I'd do. I know, it sounds crazy, but I love animals and fortunately skids and even BM do too!

They are voiceless. We must be their voice.

Thanks for the post.

My kid can defend himself. My pets can't (or if they do defend themselves, they don't have the same barriers).

If the skids or DH were being abusive to my DS or the pets (even if it's not "my" pet), you bet your sweet @ss I stepped in immediately.

Absolutely animal abusers should be confronted and prosecuted.  Regardless of how old they are.  

That said, I do struggle with people who put pets on equal footing with children.

Pets are animals and people trump animals.  Criminals not withstanding of course.

No, people do not trump animals. Animals cannot defend themselves in the same way as people can and deserve appropriate treatment and protection.

Skid tried to pull some weird leverage crap this summer in regards to not wanting to be around our cats, because allergic. Pretty sure she was trying to get daddy to choose her presence over our two indoor cats.

I called BS, as skid had no issues being around in-laws senior cat, and he smells like death. 

If I ever catch her trying to mistreat my animals, I’ll have to remind her of how her mommy, BM, dropped a dog off in the middle of the night I some random neighborhood, because owning a dog inconvenienced her.