You couldn't at least root for the two guys who finally realized that what they were doing was wrong? It seemed that it may not have started all that violently, and gradually escalated. Frog in the boiling water. I personally can't tolerate even mild hazing - decided not to participate in team sports because of it in high school and college - but not everyone feels that way, and if the consequences started out pretty mild, I can see it being a bonding ritual to begin with.
It's not that I don't want them to be successful at stopping further damage, but it's kind of like... I don't know... a group of people starting a garbage fire in a basement and then being surprised when the building starts on fire and two of them try to put it out. They were dropping people in a pit with biting snakes as the story started, and not bothered by it enough to raise more than a mild objection. They were already well beyond the point of having descended past mild hazing by that point, AFAIC.
(Even more ordinary hazing I find pretty disgusting, I roomed with a guy who was pledging for a frat in college and was consistently surprised that he would subject himself to that just to gain entrance to the organization. IMO any organization that values trying to make people miserable to quit as an entry test is not an organization worth joining, call me unambitious)
As for the dog killing thing, you just reminded me of a fleeting thought I'd lost earlier - here's a stub of a thesis. Pets being killed/tortured has some sort of parallel to stories that use rape as an "easy" way to provide background story for a female character. Not sure I can articulate what I'm thinking right now, but maybe someone (you?) can come in and explain my thought process to me, or why I'm mistaken?
I think there's SOME similar root there, but not entirely.
Both are way overused because it is "easy" to write and has become a kneejerk used a filler for "bad things happen and you should be horrified and/or sad". Both rape and dog-death are used in this way.
That said they are MILES apart, despite this minor similarity. Poorly considered rape scenes are much worse than poorly considered dog death scenes for many many reasons (not least of which is that some of your readers will have survived rape and so it is a major PTSD trigger as well as being pretty obvious what you get wrong), which if you want to discuss further would probably be better branched into a new thread because it would be a huge tangent. (case in point: I have written 2 horror stories with dog deaths, though I think both work, I'm not saying that it can't ever work. I have written no rape scenes because I have not come across a story in my writing where it would have made the story better rather than worse)
