Kids are mean, but...

I know kids, especially younger kids, do mean things sometimes. They don’t always understand fully how words and actions can hurt others. But today, I was met with a painful exception for which there was no excuse.


Lamar and I were walking home at dusk, and at least 10 “kids” of varying ages were out playing around in front of our house. There were some as young as 5 or 6 and some as old as at least 16 and 17. As we were passing by, I heard crying, but not human crying. I looked back, and a young boy had a puppy. He was putting the puppy between his knees. I thought this was a really weird thing to do, so I stopped and watched, just to make sure. Next thing I know, this kid is punching the puppy repeatedly in the head. He wasn’t hitting him or tapping him or anything remotely close: this kid has his fists balled up and he was punching the puppy.

Something inside me just snapped. I ran over there saying “no” and asking him what he thought he was doing. By the time I got to him, he had pulled the puppy up close to his face and was screaming at him about why he wasn’t able to listen or learn anything. I turned the kid around to face me, I bent down, I looked him in the eyes, and I asked him what he was doing beating that puppy. He looked at me blankly. Then, the saddest thing happened: all the “kids” just started laughing. There were teenagers and one girl who was an adult, for crying out loud! They all thought it was hysterically funny….this white girl worried about some kid punching a puppy to death. I told them it wasn’t funny and that it was a bad thing to do, and then I realized how useless it really was.  I'm not sure what broke my heart more:  the beaten puppy or the realization that it was all useless to try to get them to care.  As we left, I heard them all screaming after us the only words they knew in English, “#$*& you!”

What makes all of this worse is that this wasn’t some puppy they found. About two months ago, I saw one of the kids (not the one punching him) taking the puppy home. He looked so happy. I stopped and talked to him. He had named it, and seemed to really be invested. I told him to be sure and take care of it and treat it well.

Kids are mean, but this was something extraordinary. It takes a special kind of inhumanity not only to do what I witnessed but to watch it and do nothing. And the most ironic part: the kid was irritated at the puppy because he “couldn’t listen and learn.” Interesting….I know the feeling.