My Thoughts on Brooke Houts' Video
Let me start by saying that the way Brooke Houts treated her dog was not OK. It was wrong and dog owners should strive to treat their pets with love and gentleness even during times of frustration and discipline. It’s our responsibility as pet owners to give our pets the best life possible.Read that again if you need to, because I want you to know I mean it. I'm not excusing Brooke's behavior. Unfortunately, I’m still going to get crap for this because we live in a time where cancel culture is rampant and people’s ideas of justice have been warped and distorted by social media mob mentality and detachment from our fellow humans.I watched the video of Brooke being aggressive with her dog several times. For those who haven’t seen it, the video—which Brooke allegedly uploaded by accident—shows Brooke pinning her Doberman down, yelling at him, apparently spitting on him, pushing him, and slapping him once in the face. Some people say the dog was kicked, but I didn’t see it, so I’m not going to comment on that.
Brooke denies that she spit on the dog, but it seems pretty apparent that she did when one watches the video.The video certainly wasn’t pleasant to watch. The dog appeared to be trying to either cuddle or play with Brooke, who became frustrated with him on several occasions and lashed out. It was sad to see the dog being treated roughly when he simply wanted to engage with his owner. That being said, I’m not convinced that the dog was actually harmed in this video, nor do I think it was Brooke’s intention to harm the dog, and yes, I think that matters. This isn't about minimizing Brooke's actions, but it's not about exaggerating them either.
Harm exists on a continuum, and I think it's appropriate that we put the pitchforks down, look at what Brooke actually did, and make sure we're being reasonable in our responses. Brooke is a human, and the actions we take towards her, even if limited to social media, have an impact on her life.
As far as I could tell, the dog was not in any clear physical pain, nor was he at risk of receiving an injury from Brooke. Yes, the slap probably hurt a bit, but I saw that as an overly-aggressive attempt to discipline the dog, not an attempt to make the dog suffer or to cause him injury. I saw Brooke's actions as a lack of ability to regulate her anger and frustration, and thus exceeding a reasonable amount of force when trying to discipline and redirect her dog. No, this isn't a good thing, but I don't think she's a sociopathic monster either.
My point in unpacking this video and examining the details is to encourage people who have seen it to keep things in perspective and remember that true justice needs to appropriately match the severity of the crime. Judging a crime based on how we feel when we witness it is not wise. In my opinion, Brooke deserves to be called out for what she did and perhaps (if this is a common occurrence, which is likely but not known for certain) have her dog rehomed to an owner who is a better fit and has more patience for him. If she broke any animal cruelty laws (which, after reviewing the laws, I don’t think she did), she needs to be held accountable for that.
That’s it. She does not deserve to be physically beaten, thrown in prison, burn for eternity, have her livelihood destroyed, be banned from having children, or any of the other ridiculous consequences I’ve heard the mob propose. If everyone were to be punished according to the wishes of the internet mob, we’d all be in prison. Humans screw up. All of us have hurt people and other sentient beings in one way or another. Consider yourself lucky you didn’t have the misfortune of your worst moments being broadcast to the world. The cesspool that is Twitter is filled with extreme tweets like this:
#brookehout is a vile and disgusting human who doesn’t deserve to own any sort of pet let alone one as gorgeous as that dog, can’t wait till she’s punched slapped and spat on. https://t.co/LnMYKG5MPj
— TylerJayy (@SocialJayy) August 8, 2019
I'm particularly interested in this person's belief that better-looking dogs are more deserving of loving owners.
EVERYONE on twitter showing up to @brookehouts house tomorrow #brookehout pic.twitter.com/mdJYMGhHLO
— REMY SO WAVY💙🦋™ + (@hardin_remy) August 8, 2019
Sorry, encouraging physical assault is no better than the behavior you're condemning. I'd say it's worse.Let’s try to look at this objectively. That’s all I’m saying. Keep things in perspective. Understand that even people who do bad things are still humans who have struggles and challenges. Brooke almost certainly has some of her own issues to work out, and we have no idea what those are. It is not OK or just to judge a person’s character or hand them a life sentence based on a few moderately harmful actions, especially when we aren’t aware of their personal struggles. We should strive to help people whose pain causes them to do bad things rather than demonize them. Even the worst criminals who should be locked up and kept away from society deserve a chance to be rehabilitated and to make things right.In regards to Brooke’s apology. I think she downplayed a few things, including the spitting. Ultimately, however, she demonstrated an understanding of the fact that what she did was not OK. This needs to count for something. She does throw in a few excuses such as her life being “less than exceptional” recently, but overall, she does a pretty good job of taking responsibility and specifically addressing the areas in which she needs to change. I give her credit for that. It doesn’t erase what she did, but it does demonstrate the existence of a moral compass.This “cancel culture” in which the internet mob demands that people be wiped off the face of the digital earth (and, in some cases, the actual earth) as a result of bad behavior is extreme, irrational, and unjust. The punishment needs to fit the crime. The internet mob has the ability to completely ruin a person’s life if they want to. This has happened and driven people to suicide. I see this behavior as being just as, if not more, reprehensible than the condemned behavior that sparks it.