While some people don’t know how they would live without their beloved dog(s) and/or cat(s), not everyone grows up with pets or even wants to own a pet.

There are dog people. There are cat people. Then there are people who aren’t pet people. People who don’t own pets often don’t know a lot about pets, and that’s ok. A non-pet owner doesn’t’ necessarily need to know much about others’ furry friends, but sometimes a little bit of knowledge comes in handy.

Reddit user sourcecodeofelendil lives in a community where pets are supposed to be on leashes at all times when they are on the sidewalk or in the parking lot. One of his neighbors didn’t secure the leash to his puppy quickly enough, and the puppy ran away. What happened next has left this Reddit user wondering if he made a mistake.

He wrote, “As I stepped into the parking lot, I saw a dog hurtling towards me, top speed. It was barking. About the height of my knee.”

He was alarmed and a little bit frightened, not sure what the dog was going to do or what the dog wanted. He even added a disclaimer writing, “I know NOTHING about dogs, breeds, behaviors or how to tell what the ears or tail mean.”

He had his pepper spray in his hand in case he needed to use it on the dog, but he waited until the dog was two feet away. When the dog still didn’t stop, he sprayed the dog.

At this point, the dog’s owner showed up, holding the dog’s leash in his hand. The man with the pepper spray explained, “I had to pepper spray your dog man. I’m sorry. It was charging at me.”

The dog owner reacted by saying, “Man, he’s just a baby. He wanted to play!”

Meanwhile, the dog was running in circles, clearly confused and kind of freaking out. The man who sprayed him walked to his car and drove away, which is all he was trying to do in the first place.

The question is, should he have sprayed the dog? Most people seem to feel that he was in the right. After all, the community rules state that dogs are to be on a leash at all times, and this dog was not on a leash.

One comment reads, “For someone who’s not familiar with dogs, having one running towards you while barking is aggressive…Not everyone likes dogs either. I’m mostly over my phobia, but if one had run at me back when I was phobic I’d probably have panicked and kicked it out of fear regardless.”

Another person wrote, “I honestly love dogs, but they have very dangerous mouths. If a dog I don’t know comes running at me barking, I would absolutely pepper spray it for my own safety.”

Other people point out that the owner is to blame. “This is totally the dog owners fault for letting it be out of sight off leash.”

Do you think he was right to pepper spray the dog? How would you react is someone pepper sprayed your dog?