RofD: Shocked and Bewildered

This time, the “R” stands for “Rant”

From time to time, I like to frequent the Chronicle Journal web site to see what shenanigans and going-ons my hometown is experiencing. I pass along to my Toronto friends the wacky stories about the residence's encounters with bears and bulls or I post various samplings of the Thumbs Up Thumbs Down section that often cause head-shakes and chuckles.

Then there was this story:

Dog saved after being stabbed
Andrew Rogala was busy barbecuing in his backyard Thursday evening when he heard the disturbing sounds. He and Bev Rogala, his wife, were celebrating her birthday by cooking shish kebabs and enjoying some cold drinks on their deck at 217 Stephens St., when he heard the next-door neighbour's dog cry out.
“I knew something was wrong when I heard this yelping,” Rogala said Friday.
He ran to his neighbour's backyard, where a corrugated
fibreglass shed was located. He poked his head in a small opening and saw blood on the floor and his neighbour holding the dog over a bucket.The man had one arm under the dog's chest and another around its neck, Rogala said.
“I said, 'What the (expletive) are you doing,'” Rogala recalled. “He said, 'It's OK, it's OK. I don't want the dog anymore.'”
More…

I was horrified to read this but more so that I, in fact, knew the guy in question. His last name escapes me but his first name is Mel. He was born in the Philippines, moved here to live with his mother circa 1996, give or take. He was always polite, quiet and overall a genuinely nice guy. Though his and my family were not best friends, our parents were in the same social circle.

An argument or rather discussion I had with my friend Mel (different Mel) was that he is not crazy. Before she began, she stated clearly for the record that she does not condone what happened or that it justifies it in any way. Her argument was maybe he simply didn't know any better (again, not justifying what happened). For those who are not aware, dogs in the Philippines are not the same here. They are not members of the family. They are simply meat.

Before I can even fathom what happened to this guy, the problem I have is that I simply cannot wrap my head around such an inhumane act. Well, perhaps that's not a problem but merely a good thing. Is it because I was born here that I simply think that is insane? The guy is fucking crazy. There has to be a chemical imbalance for him to logically work it out in his head that because he does not want the dog anymore, stabbing it repeatedly makes perfect sense, like it's the only way to handle said situation. And quite frankly, if that was indeed the case, he's lived here Canada for over 11 years! Am I insensitive in thinking you wouldn't pick up on the fact that spilling a dog's blood into a bucket in your shed is frowned upon here?