Clip of apparent animal cruelty under investigation; woman says: ‘My son didn’t do that’

MIAMI DADE COUNTY, Florida. – A video making the rounds on local social media sites appears to show a person aggressively punching a leashed dog in the face multiple times outside a South Dade home.

But a woman who claims to be the mother of the person seen in the video says there is more to it than meets the eye.

Miami-Dade police said they are investigating the clip, which was recorded in the area of ​​Southwest 164th Avenue and 290th Street in Miami-Dade.

After knocking on the front door, a woman opened the door and said the homeowner was not there.

Shortly thereafter, a woman named Sherika called Local 10 News.

“I have a two-year-old, and the dog attacked my two-year-old,” she said. “At first we thought they were playing because she had grown up with them as a baby, and the dog tried to bite her in the face, so my son took the dog out and said, ‘No, you’re not doing that.'”

Sherika said someone on the other side of the fence filmed and edited a video of her son hitting the dog, but her son did not hit the animal, rather someone edited the video. She added, “Whoever released this video, he did so much in it that my son did not do at all.”

“You’re saying this didn’t happen?” asked Local 10 News reporter Hannah Yechivi.

Sherika replied, “I’ll say it again: whoever made this video did it over the fence and put their own spin on the video. Do you know you can do that with a video?”

She said she had just built a $1,000 dog cage and the family takes very good care of their dogs. “Anyone can tell you about my son. He’s a great boy.”

When asked if she had talked to her son about how to treat a dog, she replied, “Of course. My son grew up with dogs; his dogs love him.”

“The Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) is aware of the social media video showing a dog being struck multiple times by a male dog,” Miami-Dade Police Department spokesman Detective Argemis Colome said in a statement Monday. “This video was sent to the MDPD yesterday, Sunday, May 26, via a CrimeStoppers tip. The MDPD South District immediately launched an investigation.”