If you needed a reason to never trust a man who “hates” the family pet, here it is on a silver platter. We have seen some truly trashy behavior on the internet, but this latest Reddit saga is genuinely enough to make your blood boil. Imagine going on a trip with your daughter only to have your husband call and tell you your senior dog is gone, only to find out he literally drove her out of state and dumped her like a piece of garbage. We are not just talking about a “mistake” here; we are talking about a calculated act of cruelty that is almost too much to process.
The Original Poster (OP) is a 34-year-old mom who recently took a short trip with her seven-year-old daughter. They left their mini poodle mix, Ellie, at home with the husband. Now, Ellie isn’t some rambunctious puppy; she is thirteen years old. She is a senior girl who just wants to sit on laps and be loved. On the last day of the trip, the husband called, acting “distraught,” claiming Ellie bolted into some bushes at the park and vanished. The OP was suspicious because Ellie doesn’t just run away, but she chose to believe her partner because, well, who would lie about something that horrific?
When they got home, the vibes were immediately off. The husband seemed “surprisingly ok” while his wife and daughter were drowning in grief. It turns out this guy had been annoyed with Ellie since the pandemic started because she wanted too much attention while he worked from home. A few days later, a miracle happened: an animal rescue from a neighboring state called. They found Ellie. When the OP told her husband, his response was a “blunt and insincere” claim that he was happy. He even tried to suggest that someone “stole her and abandoned her” to explain how a tiny senior dog ended up in another state.
The OP knew something was rotting in Denmark. While her husband was out drinking with his buddies, she decided to do some digital detective work. She checked his car’s dashcam footage from the days she was away. What she saw was a scene straight out of a villain’s origin story. He didn’t lose Ellie at the park. He drove her far out of state, pulled over, threw a “frisbee-like object” into a field, yelled “fetch,” and then drove off, leaving a confused 13-year-old dog alone in the middle of nowhere.
Can we just pause for a second and talk about the level of sociopathy required to do that? To look at a dog that has lived with your family for over a decade and decide to dump her in a random field because she “begged to sit on your lap” is absolute sh!t behavior. He didn’t just want to get rid of the dog; he wanted to k!ll the bond his wife and daughter had with her and then watch them cry over a “loss” he created.
When the OP confronted him with the literal video evidence of his crime, he didn’t even have a good excuse. He “stupidly muttered” that he dropped her there so she could “find a farm and have a better life.” Sir, this is a mini poodle, not a cow. She doesn’t need a farm; she needs a sweater and a nap. Then, because he is a classic gaslighter, he turned the anger around on her, calling the OP and her seven-year-old daughter aholes for “viewing his dashcam without consent.”
Imagine having the gall to call your seven-year-old daughter an ahole after you tried to traumatize her by dumping her best friend. The fact that he thinks his “privacy” regarding a dashcam is more important than the safety of a living creature and the emotional well-being of his family is psychotic. He isn’t a husband; he is a threat. If he is willing to do this to a dog because she was “annoying,” what else is he capable of when things don’t go his way?
The OP is asking if she is the ahole for checking the footage, and the answer is a resounding NO. This isn’t a “privacy” issue; this is an “uncovering a crime” issue. You don’t get to demand privacy for your betrayal. He used that car to commit an act of animal cruelty and psychological warfare against his own family. The dashcam didn’t violate his privacy; it simply told the truth that he was too much of a coward to say.
Honestly, the only “A-hole” here is the man who thinks a 13-year-old poodle is an inconvenience that deserves to be abandoned. We are so happy that Ellie was found, but we are terrified for this woman and her daughter. A man who can look a child in the eye and lie about the death or disappearance of her pet is someone who should not be allowed in the house, let alone in the family.
So, NTA. Not even a little bit. We hope the OP takes Ellie, takes her daughter, and takes that dashcam footage straight to a divorce lawyer and the local police. Abandoning an animal is illegal in many places, and being a world-class ahole should be too. Ellie deserves a lap to sit on, and it definitely shouldn’t be his.
What would you do if you caught your partner doing something this heartless? Is there any coming back from a “betrayal” of the family pet, or is “get the f*ck out” the only appropriate response? Let us know in the comments if you are team Ellie!