Facebook Busybodies

A friend of mine has just had a rather upsetting experience concerning the fact that he left his miniature Jack Russel in his car while he went to the chemist to fetch his medication.

The dog is 7 or 8 years old and very friendly, I have known her since she was a puppy and she is used to being left in the car for short periods, in fact she gets stressed out if she is left at home on her own.

Yesterday was not a hot day here and very little sunshine was in evidence but a woman on Facebook took it into her head to make a big thing about the fact she was left in the car, even talking about smashing a window and after all sorts of other ill informed people jumped on the band wagon, she even called the police.

The almost hysterical posts on Facebook aimed at my friend were unbelievable, trying to make him out to be public enemy number one.

Certainly the bad side of social media. No person to person actions/arguments any more. Just about everything goes online now for others to see.

Your friend's dog didn't get to be a healthy 8 year old by being ill-treated.

I once had occasion to point this out to a couple of people who saw my dog in the car. It was when I was a TV/video recorder engineer going around the houses. I could see the car out of the window of an upstairs flat while I was doing a repair. I noticed some people looking into the car. I finished the job and when I got back, was told that I shouldn't leave the dog in the car like that. I had to point out that my dog hadn't got to be 10 years old by being mistreated.

About the only saving factor for the people was that it had turned sunny while I was doing the job and they didn't know how long I'd be away. They also didn't know that I was keeping an eye on things. If the job had looked like turning into a lengthy one, I'd have been down there to see to the dog. With them not knowing those facts, I too could have been on Facebook as a villain ..had there been such a thing in those days.

Our dog lived to be 17 years old.

There does seem to be a culture of jumping to conclusions without checking facts everywhere nowadays.
False News is endemic unfortunately and that is why we are going through all the trauma of Brexit.