Shep is the villainous protagonist of the Looney Tunes short "Fresh Airedale." He is a greedy, sociopathic dog who will do anything to get what he wants while framing an innocent kitten for his misdeeds.
What Makes Him a Hate Sink?[]
- He's one of the most despicable Looney Tunes characters by a mile and is a rare case of one who isn't played for laughs at all. His sociopathic behavior is also disturbingly realistic and intended to outrage the viewer.
- He plays the role of being a friendly, loyal dog to trick his master, but is in reality a greedy monster who only cares about himself.
- He steals his master's dinner despite having been fed already, while letting the kitten be blamed for it and kicked out of the house, then offers his master a bone to manipulate him into giving him another piece of meat. He later pretends to defend the kitten from being punished only so he can beat him up himself.
- He helps a burglar break into the house while demanding a bone from the burglar as a bribe, while falsely making it look like he drove the burglar off, and is wrongly praised in the press as a hero.
- He becomes enraged when he learns another dog is more popular than himself and tries to murder him. When the other dog saves him from drowning, Shep makes it appear that he was the one who saved the latter, and is again wrongly rewarded with a parade in his honor.
- He gets away with his actions while the innocent kitten who tried to stop him is punished, making him a karma houdini.