On April 19, in a community in Langfang, Hebei, a puppy scared a one-year-old child to tears. The child's father threw the dog to death in anger. On the 20th, the owner of the pet dog responded that she was partially responsible for not wearing a leash at the time, but the other party's excessive behavior made her very angry.

"People's Daily": Having a sense of rights but also a sense of rules is the basic consensus of a civilized society. Today, as living standards continue to improve, dog ownership is indeed a personal choice, but as long as the pet dog goes out of the house and enters public areas, dog owners must assume corresponding obligations. Take good care of your own dogs and do not cause inconvenience to others. This is the most basic civilized quality.

A community is a place where people gather together. Everyone has their own living habits and philosophy, which can easily lead to conflicts. Therefore, communities particularly need to establish a sense of rules to maintain good public order. The whole thing is actually a tragedy where the rules failed and the behavior crossed the line.

Judging from the results, the child was frightened and the puppy was beaten to death. The child’s father’s behavior was indeed a bit extreme. After all, according to the owner of the pet dog, the puppy has not done any substantial harm, and for many families, pets are also very important relatives. Objectively speaking, it is difficult to say that it is appropriate to smash a puppy to death in front of a 1-year-old child.

However, judging from the process, the owner of the pet dog did not tie the dog leash in accordance with relevant legal provisions when walking the dog, causing the dog to run to lick the child, which ultimately frightened the child. Many parents said they could understand their father's worry and nervousness at the time. He might not be able to calmly observe whether his child had been bitten by a dog, and he was so anxious and angry that he took drastic actions.

If we want to analyze the responsibilities of both parties in this matter in detail based on legal provisions, we must restore the complete situation when the incident occurred. For example, did the puppy just lick the child as the owner of the pet dog said, without any obvious attack or harm? Although the child was not injured, he was frightened because he was too young, and whether his physical and mental health would be affected, etc. Only by restoring the truth and understanding all the facts can we judge how much responsibility the owner of the pet dog should bear for the violation of not tying the dog leash, and whether the father of the child should be held responsible for killing the dog. As you can imagine, the positions and judgments of both parties are very different. If they cannot reconcile privately, they will have to go through legal procedures, which will be troublesome for both families.

But all this could have been completely avoided. As long as pet dog owners abide by laws and regulations, strictly abide by social ethics, wear dog tags and take measures such as tying the dog leash in accordance with regulations when taking their dogs out, the children may not be frightened at all, and the puppies will not lose their lives due to the owner's fault.

We cannot talk coldly about whether a child is frightened by danger or a puppy is suddenly killed. What is more serious at both ends of the scale? What we need to do is to be responsible for every life around us that we value. As a pet owner, strictly abiding by the rules and raising dogs in a civilized manner is not only an emphasis on civilization and respect for others, but also the protection of pets. As parents, we should also abandon overly emotional behaviors and use a more rational and civilized way to protect our children, not only to protect their personal safety, but also to protect their mental health.

In urban life, being neighbors is a kind of fate. In many cases, as long as everyone can empathize with each other, think from others' perspective, and have more sense of social responsibility and public morality, many conflicts and disputes can be avoided. The more civilization there is, the more harmony there will be, and the less such tragedies of “no one benefits”.

Source: Chutian Metropolis Daily