AITA for checking my husband’s dashcam footage on his car without his consent?

A woman (34F) suspected something was off when her husband (37M) claimed their elderly dog Ellie ran away during her trip with their daughter. While the family grieved, the husband seemed oddly unaffected, raising suspicions. Days later, Ellie was found by a rescue organization in a neighboring state, far from home.

Feeling uneasy, the woman checked her husband’s dashcam footage while he was out and discovered that he had driven Ellie far away and abandoned her, pretending to play fetch.

When she confronted him, he gave a weak excuse about Ellie “finding a farm life” and then got angry at her for looking through his dashcam without his permission, calling both her and their daughter the assholes.

‘ AITA for checking my husband’s dashcam footage on his car without his consent’

I (34F) live with my husband (37M) and daughter (7F). My daughter and I recently went on a short trip out of state while my husband stayed as he had work and was supposed to look after our dog.

On the last day of our trip we got a call from my husband who was acting distraught and said that our dog Ellie had run away and that he could not find her. He claimed she just bolted away from him in the park, into some bushes and he could not find her.

Our dog is quite small, a mini poodle mix and almost 13 years old, she is still active but it is really unlike her to run away from us and I was suspicious but chose to believe my husband and me and my daughter were in grief but did not want to blame him. When we came back home, he seemed surprisingly ok unlike us.

Ever since the pandemic, my husband started working from home and he has always been annoyed at how much attention we gave Ellie and hated how Ellie begged to sit on our laps and his while he worked. A few days later we got a call from an animal rescue in a neighboring state quite far from us that she had been found.

I picked the phone and it was on our landline which we almost never use these days but was the contact on the microchip. I told my husband and he just said “that is great, I am so happy” but it felt kind of blunt and insincere. I said it is strange that she got so far and he responded that someone must have stolen her and then abandoned her.

This made little sense to me as to why that would happen. When he was out drinking with his buddies, I copied the videos from his dashcam for the days I was away and saw that he had indeed taken Ellie far out of state, and clearly dropped her in front of his car thrown a frisbee like object into a field, yelled fetch and drove off without her.

I was livid and confronted him and he just stupidly muttered how he dropped her there so she could find a farm and have a better life and then the next day got really angry at me for viewing his dashcam and called me an my daughter AHs.

See what others had to share with OP:

GardenSafe8519 −  NTA. Keep your dog and daughter and leave the husband in another state to find another family he’d have a better life with. Edit: holy farm cow (dog husband) didn’t expect top comment ☺️. Thanks for all the awards.

Deep-Manner-4111 −  Wow…NTA. You had a gut feeling and were absolutely right. This is horrible. What your husband did is SICK and cruel. He left an innocent animal to die. Obviously what you do now is up to you. But if it were me, I would never be able to trust him again.

The entire relationship would be ruined. He needs to seek therapy if he is so insecure that he is jealous of a dog. Pathetic excuse for a man.

Janellewpg −  NTA. I personally would straight up divorce him… my dogs are my family. Then he turns around and gets mad and calls you names. That’s the same tactic that cheaters use when their significant other finds something. Trying the ol’ uno reverso on you.

JhihnX −  NTA. Run. Really, OP, I don’t know what else to say. He drove **out of state** to d**p your senior dog. Next time, he’s going to hit her with his car. He called you **and your seven-year-old daughter** assholes. If your dog is still in the home with you, move her to a friend or family’s. Like, tonight.

Stunning-Evening-585 −  Nta it’s animal cruelty and if he called your 7 y/o an ah you need to start filing for divorce

WhiteJadedButterfly −  NTA, keep a copy of the footage as evidence

Agitated-Jaguar3012 −  He called a 7 year old an ah? What’s she got to do with any of this? Is she his kid? Cuz if not, you should probably rethink your relationship. I call my kids ahs…but not in the sense that they actually ARE…they just do ah things sometimes…cuz they’re feral. Also, he’s jealous of a 13 year old dog….🙄. This guy super sucks. NTA.

angie50576 −  Leave his ass immediately. He abandons a 13 year old dog in a field to fend for itself? Unforgivable.

Athenacosplay −  NTA, he abandoned a family member. My dad did this s**t to us as a kid with one of our dogs he didn’t like and I still haven’t forgiven him. I hope he realizes how fucked up this was. BTW my dad was also seeing prostitutes behind my mother’s back at the same time but we didnt find out for 10ish years.

All I’ll say is that someone with thar little empathy and willingness to lie might be doing more behind your back than you realize.

RickRussellTX −  NTA. If this story is even true, then it’s perfectly obvious who the a**hole is. And who records themselves doing something like that? He’s either an i**ot, or he wanted to be caught.

Was the wife justified in checking the dashcam after her husband’s suspicious behavior? What do you think about his actions and reaction? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments!