'Shut up, n*gger!': CA man goes on racist tirade when he's caught throwing dog into the street

A California man was arrested on charges of animal cruelty over the weekend after he was caught on video throwing a 6-month-old dog into the street by its leash.

Lindsey Cooks told KTLA that he was waiting at a bus station in Lancaster on Saturday when he saw 54-year-old Robert Emmett Martin abusing the puppy, and decided to record the crime with his cellphone.

Video shows a shirtless Martin yanking the dog into the air, and swinging it by its leash before he is confronted by Cooks. Martin begins yelling racial slurs at Cooks, and then picks up the dog, and slams it hard into the pavement.

As Martin turns around to hurl more racial slurs, the dog can be seen running away.

"I'm a human being, you know," Cooks explained. "And I couldn't see even a human being being treated like that, especially a dog can't defend itself, a little dog. So, I had to do something."

"I had asked him to stop to, 'Hey, man, stop doing the dog like that,' and all he could say was 'Shut up, n*gger,'" Cooks recalled, adding that only a "racist pig" would act that way.

"You look at the video, and there's something really wrong with the guy," he added. "You don't need animals, you don't need kids around him or nothing. Nobody."

Cooks provided the video to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Lancaster Station, and Martin was arrested on charges of felony animal cruelty.

The 6-month-old pit bill, named Daisy, was turned over to the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control after being treated by a veterinarian. The dog was expected to recover.

Martin pleaded not guilty, and was released on bail. He was scheduled to be back in court on Aug. 22. He faces up to three years in prison if convicted.

Watch the video below from KTLA, broadcast Aug. 9, 2014.