44 year-old Prince Edward, Prince Charles’ younger brother and the youngest child of Queen Elizabeth, was photographed repeatedly threatening his black labradors with a four foot stick while out pheasant hunting, a double animal cruelty whammy. A representative from the palace confirmed that Edward was trying to get the dogs to stop fighting over a dead pheasant he’d just shot, but said it’s not known whether he actually hit them. You can’t tell from the photos whether Edward is really smacking the dogs, but they’re clearly scared and cowering from him as if they know what to expect. You could say he’s just trying to get them to behave, but it’s so cruel to abuse animals and the pictures make Edward look like a monster. This is a much worse photo scandal for the royals than those pictures of William peeing in public.

Prince Edward could face an RSPCA investigation after he was accused of setting a ‘sickening example’ for lashing out at two gun dogs with a large wooden stick.

The 44-year-old royal was seen reacting violently when the black labradors appeared to grab hold of a dead pheasant during a shoot at Sandringham.

He rushed at the animals with his shotgun tucked under his arm and a 4ft stick raised in the air. He then brought it down sharply several times towards them…

Beverly Cuddy, editor of Dogs Today magazine, said: ‘These images are simply disgraceful – it is an outrage.

‘What sort of message does it send out when the Royal Family are directly involved in this sort of sickening animal cruelty. The Queen is the patron of the RSPCA and the Dogs Trust, yet here is her son behaving in a despicable manner.’

Jill Grieve, of the Countryside Alliance, added: ‘Raising a stick to an animal is never a great idea.

‘Using close control, with a whistle for example, is much more effective than beating a dog with a stick.’

[From The Daily Mail via Gossip Rocks]

The article goes on to quote people who speculate that Edward could have been hitting the ground near the dogs to get them to stop fighting and that he didn’t really hit them with the stick. If they were fighting and there was a danger that they could have hurt each other he may have just reacted instinctively and it wasn’t as cruel as it looked. Either way, this guy could use some lessons in how to manage his animals humanely.

Prince Edward is shown on 2/21/08. Credit: WENN