Sadly, it does happen. I've seen people of all colors and stations who treated their animals better than many treat their kids, and I've seen people who commit atrocities on both their animals and their kids that would make your head spin -- the ones who abuse animals will tend to do it to humans; that's the connection I've seen. The hood (any hood, any color) is particularly notorious -- there are people there who really don't give a shit about life at all (and no, not everyone -- I feel sorry for the ones stuck there trying to keep some humanity).