Cyclist attacks wheelchair-bound man, service dog

Ben Arends, a 61-year-old wheelchair bound man living in Kaatsheuvel, and his service dog Anton was twice threatened and attacked by the same cyclist over the past week, Omroep Brabant reports.

The first incident happened on Saturday around 11:00 a.m. Arends took his dog for a walk on Europalaan when a cyclist passed on the right. The cyclist kicked the dog. "He shouted very loudly: 'Fuck the cunt-dog'," Arends told the broadcaster. "Then he said to me 'die cripple' and took off."

Arends, whose been in a wheelchair since 2000 due to a muscle disease, decided not to call the police. "I am visually impaired and did not make much out. It was an incident", he said. He did write a post about what happened on the Facebook page Hulphond Nederland, and that post was widely shared.

On Wednesday, four days after the first incident, Arends encountered the cyclist again. He was traveling over the HOrst in Kaatsheuvel when he was tapped on the head. "It was the same cyclist. He caught up to me, stopped a bit away and said: 'Do not think that you can put shit about me on Facebook. If you do that again, I will kick your cunt dog to death.'"

Arend immediately called the police. Unfortunately he could not give a proper description. "He had a red shirt and a white helmet. Other than that, he talked not with a Brabant, but a Rotterdam accent." He can't understand what this man has against his service dog. "That's so disrespectful. If you say something against me, I don't care, but kicking a defenseless dog against his head. That is low."