The dog menance................

As i was coming home yesterday ,about 10 dogs in a defiant mood held all passerbys to ransom.As one of them pounced towards a 6yr old child, his parents shoowed it with their sleepers and the stones when again it tried to follow them. Now can this be termed as ---CRUELTY TO ANIMALS-----by the media hogging protectors of pet lovers......who find themselves lost in the line that demarcates cruelty and the normal action to keep these stray dogs away.