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Animal Abuse: The Quiet Epidemic Essay

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The Quiet Epidemic

Animal abuse is a quiet epidemic that is spreading throughout the world. The amount of animal abuse is growing and we must do something to stop it. Animal abuse is not putting a choke collar on a dog to keep it from biting an individual; it is not killing an animal for food. Animal abuse is the knowing or intentional "(1) tortures or serious overworks [of] an animal"; the "(2) failing unreasonably to provide necessary food, care, or shelter for an animal in his custody; kills, injures, or administers poison to an animal; [or] (6) causes one animal to fight with another" (Title 3). The majority of states in the U.S. classify abusive treatment toward animals as a misdemeanor. A misdemeanor is punished by a fine of…show more content…
The only way to prevent these heinous acts is to force the abusive people to go to prison and go through rehabilitation. Rehabilitation programs focus on training the inmates to be useful to society and how to be a part of society. By doing so, they will be less likely to commit other crimes. Another example is that of "Andrew Golden, an 11 year old [who] pulled the fire alarm, and proceeded to shoot his classmates and teacher. He shot his own dog who was in the hospital the week before the school shooting. He routinely shot dogs" including those that he did not own (Grove). The only way to stop the abuse is to force people to become aware of the harm it is causing and to make them go through therapy to work out the mental and social problems they have to prevent this from continuing as an adult.

As an adult, animal abusers are more likely to commit worse crimes and need to be sent to jail. There is a "significant association between acts of cruelty to animals in childhood and serious, recurrent aggression against people as an adult" (Randour). Children who are not placed in preventive programs immediately after they are proved to be abusive to animals are more likely to commit heinous crimes as an adult. For example, Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer and sexual deviant, impaled frogs, decapitated dogs and staked cats to trees as a child. As an adult, Dahmer "confessed to killing, dismembering and, in some cases, cannibalizing, 17 men
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