A Washington state dog training school is under investigation after a video emerged of a trainer beating a dog with a bat.
The cellphone footage, filmed at the Academy of Canine Behavior, in Snohomish County, shows a woman putting a dog through its paces at the center until it fails to follow a command quickly enough.
She is then seen repeatedly hitting the animal with a plastic bat, as it barked and yelped in distress, before trying to hide from the trainer.
Academy of Canine Behavior, in Snohomish County, is under investigation after a video emerged of a trainer beating a dog with a bat
The cellphone footage shows a woman putting a dog through its paces at the center until it fails to follow a command quickly enough and she hits it with a bat
She is then seen repeatedly hitting the animal with a plastic bat, as it barked and yelped in distress
Incredibly, whoever was filming the animal cruelty appeared to laugh and pronounced that it was a ‘bad dog’.
The incident was reported to the Snohomish County Animal Services who say they watched the video but did not find it had been animal cruelty, WJLA reports.
Snohomish County Auditor Carolyn Weikel said they interviewed the trainer, staff and a manager who told her the dog was getting, ‘alpha training’ for being aggressive.
‘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.’
The frightened animal attempted to run away from the trainer who was attacking it
The animal cowered from the large woman, crying and yelping in distress, as someone in the video is heard laughing
She said that the Wiffle bat had been ‘modified to cause a snap’.
‘You would say, but no harm to the animal. It’s more loud that anything.’
Despite the clear distress of the animal in the video, animal services decided the trainer’s behavior didn’t amount to animal cruelty and the case was closed.
However, the services have been forced to reopen the investigation after the video went viral, sparking hundreds of new complaints.
There have also been new complaints from people who say they have witnesses other incidences of abuse at the training center.
The Academy of Canine Behavior said that the employees in the video no longer work for them or have been reassigned.
‘The Academy of Canine Behavior’s owners do not condone the treatment of animals in our care as shown in a two-year old video recently released by a disgruntled former employee,’ they said.
The Academy of Canine Behavior said that the employees in the video no longer work for them or have been reassigned