Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right

It was in the seventies and a new subdivision we had just moved into.  The world seemed like a safe place.  It was not unusual to speak to your neighbor even if the neighbor lived several houses away.  Constantly there was bicycle riding on the street.  There was walking.  You just never figured anything was needed for protection.  But today, in the same subdivision, there is less bicycle riding.  There is less walking.  If walking; the person carries a stick.  I have even seen the carrying of a golf club.  Who or what are we protecting ourselves from?  Even I don’t walk much on the same street.  I contribute mine though to being older and bad knees.

At the end of my street those many years back was an open field where many would go to ride their bicycles, ride motor vehicles, and walk.  We called this area the trails.  It seemed like many neighbors put that area to use.  But as progress came, so did the end of the trails.  The trails became more houses with more people.

It was actually fun to walk back then.  And even I rode a bicycle occasionally with my children.  But in those walks someone always seemed to walk with me.  But not so on this one day as I walked alone.  It was just before me there was a boy on a bicycle.  Before my eyes, I saw something I found hard to comprehend.

It was from a house came running a dog and he/she proceeded to head right for the boy on the bicycle.  The dog took the boy off that bicycle.  The dog began his biting.  I didn’t think twice about my own safety as I headed for the dog and boy.  I managed to get the dog off the boy.  The boy jumped on his bicycle and took off.  I assumed he was heading home.  The dog headed in the other direction.  I assumed he too was heading home.  I stood there amazed at what I had witnessed.  I received no thanks.  I believed the boy to be minding his own business.  But at the same time, I wondered what had provoked the dog?  I would soon learn the answer.  I was not the only eye witness to that incident that day.  But I was the only one who proceeded to stop it.

From a near-by house came a lady yelling at me, “I saw that!  Why didn’t you leave it alone?”

I was surprised by the lady’s reaction to which I replied, “I couldn’t let that dog hurt that boy!”

“That boy deserved it!” she insisted, “On his way to school, he always throws rocks at the dog.  He pokes sticks at him.  He does whatever he can to abuse the animal.”

“No one deserves to be mangled to death by any animal.”  I replied.

I have often thought about that incident over the years.  How long a memory span does a dog have?  Was the dog justified in his action?

Apparently other neighbors felt the same way about the boy deserving it.  I got other opinions later about the incident.  It seemed no one sided with the boy.  He had deserved it.  There were witnesses to the incident.  No one tried stopping it besides me.  As I thought about it, I wondered why no one ever tried stopping the abuse to the dog in the first place.  They had left it up to the dog to get his revenge.  And then when he did, they said the dog was justified.

Two wrongs don't make a right.  It is so wrong to abuse an animal.  It is so wrong to just sit by and watch a dog attack a human.  Again, two wrongs don't make a right.  I can't help but think I made the right call that day.  What would you have done?  Would you have made the same call?