Drug trafficking? Meh; the rural papers are full of tales of drug traffickers.
Assaulting a dog? String him up!
I am not endorsing this view, but it’s been this way a long time. The death of a man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic, and the hurt of a dog is an abomination. I remember sitting in the theater watching Independence Day when L.A. is getting destroyed by aliens-aliens (not, as it actually happened), the buildings are collapsing, cars are getting caught in a blast radius, and the crowd cheers when the dog is safe.
Somewhere on the heat chart of who loves what (family, neighbors, the Other), the spot for animals is probably bright red for both conservatives and liberals.
