Animals Being Jerks is a delightful, rarely disappointing section of Reddit, where people post—what else?—GIFs, photos, and videos of animals at their peak dickishness. Think along the lines of cats being jerks to dogs, dogs being jerks to cats, animals being jerks to humans, and so on and so forth.
It’s not hard to see why it’s such a popular subreddit, and this latest viral offering likewise does not disappoint. On Wednesday, user sirmakoto posted the following imgur GIF to r/AnimalsBeingJerks (as well as to r/gifs) taken from somewhere in Japan, in which a golden retriever grabs the leash of a smaller white dog and proceeds to run off with it—while the tiny dog’s owner tries in vain to stop the so-called dog-napping.
View post on imgur.comIn just one day, the GIF was viewed over 1.7 million times. Then the video made its way to Twitter, where it was tweeted on Wednesday by @chaeronaea. “Please enjoy this video I found on reddit of a dog trying to steal another smaller dog,” she wrote.
https://twitter.com/chaeronaea/status/1060255379752448000
From there, the GIF went on to go even more viral, being retweeted over 100,000 times in less than 24 hours, at the time of this writing. Others who shared the tweet were likewise captivated with the absolute savagery from the golden retriever.
bigger dog: breathe if you’re being held against your will & need help
— ✰kayla✰ (@neorvng) November 8, 2018
smaller dog: what?
bigger dog: I’m on it https://t.co/wT36QS6wyQ
I am choosing to believe this is the Romeo and Juliet of dogs, with a happier ending. https://t.co/LXgWOr8jb0
— Jodi Picoult (updates only) (@jodipicoult) November 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/BabyMarley_3/status/1060571037547614209
Omg the look on the smaller dogs face , nagpapatulong sa human nya 😂 https://t.co/b9IZC8DVvX
— checks (@gwofcheka) November 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/Itzz_Cait/status/1060528255558664193
Bitch I’m crying 😭 😭😭😭 https://t.co/kozW1RTwDl
— skye❤️ (@skyeanastasiaa) November 8, 2018
The GIF bears resemblance to another video that went viral earlier this year, in which a golden retriever grabbed the leash of a cat on a harness—however, in that instance, the dog was seemingly trying to break up a potential catfight before it happened.
It’s unclear what motivated the retriever who dragged the puppy off, or if it was indeed attempting to prevent something bad from happening to its little friend. Maybe it wasn’t a case of an animal being a jerk after all, but an ill-attempted rescue operation? We may never know.