A Bothell dog training school is investigated after a Facebook video went viral. In the video, dog trainers beat a dog with a soft bat for not following their commands.
The Snohomish County Animal Services have deemed that the beating is not animal abuse and had already closed the case before the video had gone viral. However thanks to all the online buzz, the officials are opening a secondary investigation. The Snohomish County Animal Services last examined the footage in June.
“There was some behavior we were concerned about,” said Carolyn Weikel, Snohomish County Auditor.
Apparently, they had interviewed the trainer, the staff, and a manager.
Said people had stated that the dog was getting “alpha training” because it was too aggressive.
The animal services decided that this isn’t animal abuse. The reason is that the bat was soft and didn’t cause the dog any physical harm.
“This particular dog was strong minded. He was aggressive,” said Weikel. “It may not look appropriate, but it is not harmful to the animal and it is used in very rare occasions for training dogs that are very aggressive.”
Weikel added, “The tool they were using was a Wiffle bat that had been modified to cause a snap, you would say, but no harm to the animal. It’s more loud that anything.”
After all the online outrage, however, the officials have reexamined the situation.
“We have received one or two other calls from other individuals saying they had witnessed other events at that location and we will be investigating those as well in the future,” said Weikel.
The news report doesn’t include the name of the training school . You can view the whole video on Komo News’ website.
