What a Dog Owner Was Filmed Doing Made One Witness Say He Wouldn't Expect 'Even a Human Being' to Be Treated Like That

What Lindsey Cooks saw while he was standing at a neighborhood bus stop in Lancaster, California, recently had him shocked and whipping out his cellphone to record evidence. What Cooks caught on camera ended with the man in question in handcuffs and in the back of a police car.

The graphic footage taken Saturday shows a shirtless man lifting up a dog violently into the air by its leash. He then carried it into the street where he threw it down on the pavement. The man then apparently yelled racial slurs at Cooks when he confronted him, saying the man's treatment of the dog was "cruelty to animals," Cooks recalled to KTLA-TV.

Image source: KTLA-TV

Image source: KTLA-TV

“I’m a human being, you know?” Cooks told the news station. “I couldn’t see not even a human being being treated like that, especially a dog that can’t defend itself, a little dog, so I had to do something."

Watch the footage (Content warning: images might be considered graphic):

Cooks called in the alleged abuse to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. When deputies arrived, they arrested the man, who KTLA reported was later identified as 54-year-old Robert Martin.

The dog, while not seriously hurt, was taken to the local animal shelter for the time being.