MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Video making the rounds on local social media pages shows what appears to be a person hitting a dog in its face aggressively multiple times while on a leash outside of a South Dade home.
But a woman who says she’s the mother of the person seen in the video says there’s more than meets the eye.
Miami-Dade police said they’re investigating the clip, which was taken in the area of Southwest 164th Avenue and 290th Street in Miami-Dade.
After knocking on the door of the home, a woman who opened the door said the homeowner was not there.
Shortly after, a woman named Sherika spoke to Local 10 News on the phone.
“I have a 2-year-old, and the dog was attacking my 2-year-old,” she said. “At first, we thought they were playing because she grew up as a baby with them, and the dog tried to bite her in the face, so my son was taking the dog out, like ‘no, you don’t do that.’”
Sherika said someone across the fence shot and edited a video of her son beating the dog, but that her son didn’t beat the pet and someone edited the video. She added, “Whoever put that video out, they put so much in it that is not what my son did at all.”
“You’re saying that didn’t happen?” Local 10 News reporter Hannah Yechivi asked.
Sherika replied, “I’m saying, again, whoever did that video, they did it across the fence and they put their own touch to the video, you know you can do that to the video?”
She said she just built a $1,000 dog cage and that the family cares for their dogs very well. “Anyone can tell you about my son. He is a great kid.”
When asked if she had a conversation with her son about how to treat a dog, she replied, “Of course. My son was raised with dogs; his dogs love him.”
Yolanda Berkowitz is an animal advocate and the president of Friends of Miami Animals.
She saw the video on Sunday and said action needs to be taken immediately.
“We are going to do everything we can, personally for me and as a foundation, to support animal services in this, and to help in any way that we can,” said Berkowitz.
“The Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) is aware of the social media video where a dog was struck multiple times by a male,” Miami-Dade police Detective Argemis Colome, a department spokesperson, said in a statement Monday. “This video was sent to MDPD yesterday, Sunday, May 26, via a CrimeStoppers tip. MDPD South District immediately (initiated) an investigation.”