Talking animals: Discussing the Central Park bird watcher video and when to leash your dog

You may have seen it.

It's a recentvideo taken by Christian Cooper,a black manwho was in New York's Central Parkbird watching. He began taking the video because he was trying to get Amy Cooperto leash her dog and she was refusing.

Cooper called police,to report she was being threatened by "an African American man."

The widely watched video posted on Facebook by Christian Cooper and on Twitter by his sister Melody has sparked accusations of racism, including from New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Windsor Morning host Tony Doucette spoke with Beth Daly, anthrozoology professor at the University of Windsor, about the video and the dog.

Here's some of their conversation:

How does this woman appear to be treating her dog?

It's just so awful Tony, the whole incident was horrible and, you know, I have watched the video a number of times. I think a lot of people have because it's just so disturbing and this woman, she just seemed totally out of control in general.The minute that she has decided that the man is harassing her, which of course he isn't, she just seems to forget that there's a dog there. I think she just lost complete control of herself and the dog just became this thing at the end of a string that she yanked and pulled then she had him off his feet and she was jerking him around and almost choking him. I think she really was completely unaware that she had a dog with her at this point.

So at that point, there was no doubt in your mind that this dog was being mistreated?

Oh I think so. I think it's OK to say this because the incident was really the second thing I noticed. The whole incident was so horrifying just her hysteria toward him and it's so troubling when you realize what's happening. Then when I watch it with somebody else, people said, boy, look at the way she's treating their dog. I think for a lot of people it became the second thing they noticed and then that drew so much public attention.

WATCH |Christian Cooper responds to apology made by Amy Cooper:

Christian Cooper responds to apology made by Amy Cooper

4 years ago

Duration 0:27

Saying he does not know if Amy Cooper is racist, Christian Cooper believes she definitely committed a racist act.

How do you think she should have handled the dog?

Theinteresting thing is that Central Park has a lot of off leash availability. She was at Central Park at a time when the dogs are permitted to be off leash but she was in the Rambleswhich is a very popular bird watching area during migration time so she should have not been in that one area. Central Park, you know, is enormous. If people haven't been there, it's stunningly large and for her to have been in that area is just silly asa dog walker and I think, [like] a lot of people with dogs, we cringe at people who don't respect that kind of space.

This woman lost her job but she also lost her dog. What happened with the dog?

The rescue put out a public announcement saying that she voluntarily gave up the dog. If you go to that rescue's Facebook page Tony [there are]at least 3,500comments ontherescue took the dog back. It's really it's really quite quite shocking. I didn't see a single negative response.

Under what circumstances can a rescue shelter like that take a dog back from its owner?

It's interesting because the good rescues [and] good breeders [and]ourlocal humane society will always take a dog back at the owner's request.You may have seen this instance in Chathamrecently where a rescue gave a dog to a doctor and the dog had some issues and the doctor put a clause in there:If this dog gets aggressive can I give the dog back? The rescue said of course. The dog, the woman claims, became aggressive and she put the dog down rather than give the dog back and the rescue is outraged and has talked about the possibility of a lawsuit. Good rescues will always take a dog back. The kind of rescues that don't have that in their clause is something that you should look out for and it's the same with breeders. Agood breeder will always say if under any circumstances you can no longer take care of this dog, we will take the dog back.

When is it OK for your dog to be off leash?

Central Park has a lot of rules as do many parks that, you know, during the hours of 9 p.m. and 1a.m. and I think it's 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., your dog can be off a leash in many different parts [of the park] and people have to be respectful of that. I always compare it to my fear of flying. If somebody asks me to put my dog on a leash, I don't think it's an unreasonable thing to put my dog on a leash. Dogs always need to be under the owner's control and especially in an area where dogs can run out at somebody or frighten the birds in this case,it's not an unreasonable request to ask somebody to please leash their dog.