vigilantes

The hunt for the poodle abusers is getting out of hand. It's turned into mob justice and the rabid mob can be easily manipulated to hurt anyone. Just take a look at the story below from The Star.


Man receives over 130 nasty calls on poodle abuse case


PETALING JAYA: Businessman Johnson Kang (pic), 44, had the shock of his life when he received a phone call on Wednesday accusing him of abusing a poodle.


Kang’s wife Christina Ng, 40, said her husband told the caller that he had the wrong number.


That was the beginning of a nightmare for Kang and Ng who live and work in Johor Baru.


“Johnson has received more than 130 calls since, with some even threatening to kill him for allegedly abusing the dog,” said Ng.


Meanwhile, Kang, who is an SPCA Malacca life member, said the calls started coming in after someone created a Twitter account with his phone number under the name of an individual believed to be the one who had abused the poodle called Sushi.


“I don’t know who did it. But I have lodged a police report and I’ve also gone to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission,” he added.


A YouTube video showing a man using brute force to train the poodle to stand on its hind legs recently has raised public ire.


Many people tracked down Kang through the Twitter account created with his number, but bearing the alleged perpetrator’s name.


Kang, who owns two dogs adopted from the SPCA, said he too wants the culprit caught and be dealt with.

If there is someone you don't like, you can easily just put their phone number or picture saying things like

"this is the phone number of the brother of the dog abuser, he also abused 3 dogs!"

Then those who don't bother to do any investigation of their own will immediately call the phone number and hurl abuses.

This is another variation of the anonymous sex callers. Guys (and even women) would post phone numbers of people who jilted them on swingers or singles sites requesting for one night stands. Then the victim will get all sorts of calls and harassments from people.

Anyone can be a victim. My advice to those hunting the poodle abusers, don't take justice into your own hand unless you are willing to bear the consequences of what you will do. In a mob mentality, it's so easy to beat up the person accused of being the snatch thief. Only when they discover they beat up the wrong guy, the mob just melts away pretending they didn't do anything at all. No apology.