What would you do if you saw someone beating their dog as if it was brought home by the red-headed step child?

I am very bold and not easily intimidated. I would confront them on the spot, call the police and find a way to detain them until the law arrived. I do not carry firearms but yep, I would have no problem drawing on them if I did. I would attempt to detain them in whatever manner I was able and would hope I would get assistance from passerby.
If there were any potential implements about that could be used as a weapon, a big stick, board, pipe, buckets, trash cans, rocks, whatever, I would not hesitate to use physical force if necessary.

I would also make sure I got a good description of them and any vehicle if they fled. I am passionate about animal abuse and if I were to witness something horrible all bets are off, I’ll take my chances on being arrested for my intervention.

I’d probably call the police, maybe snap a photo. It wouldn’t matter what the dog did! WTH?! When is it ever justified to beat an animal?

@JLeslie It wouldn’t matter. What if the dog was a pit bull and just tried to rip a kids arm off or your arm off. I’m sure you wouldn’t care that it was a pet. People yelp and cry too. I love my dog and would never want to hurt her. But if it came down between a protecting myself or someone else because she was being aggressive and I couldn’t control her. She’s going to find out it’s not nice biting the hand that feeds her.

@Hypocrisy_Central So as you can see. It would depend on what the dog did and if the person was disciplining the dog or trying to kill it and if the dog was trying to kill or hurt someone on purpose. I’ve held my dog and wack her rear for trying to bite another dog that was doing nothing and she yelped like I beat her. Anyone would think I was abusive as hell. But she kept pulling at the leash trying to bite the other dog who was bigger and would’ve ripped her a new one. It was the one and only time I’ve seen her behave that way.
But if that dog got away from its owner, it would’ve killed her and maybe injured me. No thanks. Baby girl learned I am not a fan of that kind of behavior. It’s been months and she’s learned that I determine where and what she does when she is on the leash.

@Pandora To your point, a story made the news that on Halloween a few years ago a German Shephard charged a girl and was mauling her arm. It wound up I knew the girl’s mom. A man at the scene ran over to help the girl and in the end shot the dog dead. I’m just fine with that. I’d be fine if they had beaten the dog off of her too. He did try to pull the dog off first.

However, a beating after the fact, after a dog did something unacceptable, I’m not ok with it. If I see someone beating a dog or animal and no one else is around something isn’t right.

@Pandora So as you can see. It would depend on what the dog did and if the person was disciplining the dog or trying to kill it and if the dog was trying to kill or hurt someone on purpose.
I would not say the dog was trying to be killed but it was harder than some people would call discipline. Especially when you factor in the anger and cussing.