Dog Invades Pitch at Argentine Soccer Match, Receives All the Cuddles

Human pitch invaders? Throw them in the slammer. Animal field crusaders? Give them a Milk Bone and a medal.

It's a double standard to be sure, but there's no more welcomed distraction from a game than a furry beast on the field. We've seen everything from pine martens to squirrels and baby bears out on the playing surface, but a recent invasion by a puppy is making a strong case for most adorable field invader in recent memory.

Vaishali Bhardwaj of Metro brings us video of the incident, which occurred at Saturday's Argentine soccer match between Belgrano and Quilmes.

A small black dog trotted onto the field and immediately curled up at the feet of one player, who did the only thing you can do in these situations and scratched the pooch's underbelly.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and another Quilmes player gathered the animal and handed it off to a stadium employee. Note that even the referee couldn't refrain from giving the dog a pat on the head.

Our "Jerk of the Day" award goes to one Quilmes player, who appeared to yell at his teammate for not getting the dog off the pitch fast enough.

YouTube

YouTube

We could also give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he's angry he didn't get a chance to scratch his team's new unofficial mascot behind the ears.

C'mon, guy. Diego Maradona is disappointed in your callous stance. He knows dogs are for cuddling. Get with the program.

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