Neighbors shaken by video of man punching dog in front of Clayton County apartment

LOVEJOY, Ga. — It’s a difficult video to watch, but hundreds have seen it on social media. A pit bull punched, possibly by its owner, on a surveillance camera, in front of a Clayton County apartment building.

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Channel 2′s Matt Johnson spoke to a horrified resident of the Lovejoy apartment building who recorded the video and could not believe what she was seeing. The woman asked Channel 2 to not identify her.

“No dogs deserve that type of abuse,” the woman said. “If he’s angry, he doesn’t know how to channel his anger, so he’s going to take it out on the animal?”

The woman told Johnson the incident happened on May 29. She said the video upset her so much that she sent the video to Lovejoy police and to the Clayton County Humane Society with the hope that they will investigate what happened and identify the man in the video.

“I don’t think it’s the first time he has done that. If you look at the dog’s actions, the minute that the owner appeared, you saw what he did in the video,” the woman said. “It (the dog) dropped down because he was expecting to be hit.”

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The video was also posted to the community’s Nextdoor page so neighbors could see what happened. Many expressed hope the dog that was punched can be placed in a new home.

“People need to not adopt animals if you are going to mistreat them,” the woman told Johnson.

It’s not known whether the man seen in the video could face animal abuse charges. The woman who recorded the video said she just hopes it helps the man channel his anger in a different way.

“To me, sending everybody to prison or arresting him, that’s not going to help,” the woman said. “It’s just going to make matters worse.”

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It’s not clear if the pit bull was injured after being punched. Animal trainers say pit bulls often get a bad reputation, but the most aggressive ones often are products of aggressive owners and that the dogs are often just acting out their owner’s behavior.

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