Animal Cruelty By Sarah West

All around the world, people are abusing animals. Animal cruelty is a big deal because some people do not look at animals as being important; some people do not see a problem with hurting them. Animal cruelty can be define as being a malicious treatment that can cause undue pain or being mistreated. Seeing an animal get brutalize by some humans seems to be cruel. Getting kicked in the ribs, left for starvation and even used for entertainment seems to be heartless. Why abuse animals when they have not done anything to harm a human. If one must see what they are really doing to these animals, then animal cruelty would not be a big deal.

There are people in today’s society who don’t believe animals deserve to have rights simply because they are “lower animals”. Mark Twain, however, would argue that humans are the lowest of the animals in his essay “The Lowest Animal”. Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is defined as the human infliction of suffering or harm upon any non-human animal, for purposes other than self-defense or survival (dictionary.com). Everyday, animals are locked in cages, beaten, tested on, tortured, and abandoned. Those horrible things occur in every society, and only select groups of people and organizations try to prevent it.

Even though animals inhabit the world along humans, humans believe that they have superiority over these creatures. This superiority comes with power and that power is overused. Many animals today are in danger, because people are injuring and killing animals is the reason why. Animal cruelty is shown in many different ways. Some ways include, abusing them when they are pets, using them for entertainment, testing on them, and feeding on them. Animals should receive rights because they live a harsh life of pain and oppression.

Animal cruelty can be either deliberate abuse or simply the failure to take care of an animal. Either way, or whether the animal is a pet, a farm animal or wildlife, the victim can suffer terribly. Animal cruelty is an ethical and moral dilemma as there is no clear right or wrong answers that can solve all of the issues. There are numerous opinions on how this issue can be solved, these include;

Animals have rights. This is a statement that very few people will disagree with. Animal cruelty as an end unto itself (i.e. for entertainment) is just wrong. Short of being a sociopath I really can’t imagine anyone saying or thinking otherwise. The real ethical question comes when humanity can benefit from a “cruelty” committed against an animal.

Animal cruelty has been going on for years at a time. With the illegal hunting of animals and cruel test given upon them it makes you wonder if anybody really cares about what is being done to animals. Author of “Animal Rights, Human Wrongs”, Tom Regan, discusses the cruelty of what several animals go through and what people are doing about it. In this selection Regan tries to appeal to the emotions of the reader, gives facts on the things that are being done by people to animals, and tries to establish his credibility in the reading.

Over the centuries, animals have suffered from cruelty from humans. In the United States, animals are beaten, neglected, or forced to struggle for survival. Animals have been inflicted with pain from humans for reasons other than self-defense. They have been slaughtered for their food and fur for personal gain in profit. In a majority of cases they have even been abused for someone’s own personal amusement or out of rage filled impulses. In some cases animals are found and rescued. They are given the second chance in life to experience what life should be like compared to what they once had.

It is not okay to be subjective towards animals and treat them less than human beings. Since they feel emotions such as pain and pleasure it is not right to subjugate animals to cruel punishments or torture, because just as humans, we cannot take the suffering. It is a curiosity whether people who eat, test, or kill animals for enjoyment or for work, are as corrupt as a racist or sexist.

“An Animal’s Place” written by, Michael Pollan is an article on rather animals should have the same constitutional rights as humans. Pollan explains in the article that, “Zogby poll found that fifty-one percent of Americans believe that primates are entitled to the same rights as human children”. Pg. 362 meaning, people want to stand up for how animals are being treated in factories. More and more animals are treated like they are machines and not animals. Pollan goes on to explain how he went to a few of the animal factories in the United States, to see how they operate. We found he was displeasing. They cage thousands of hens and pigs to the point that they become depressed. They start producing less and some resort in eating cannibalizing.

Some humans are very cruel to animals. Why would people be cruel to animals, though? There are reasons behind reasons. For example, people use animals for testing certain products, like makeup. (Get a quote to support this and explain it. You are using TREAC )The reason behind why certain people do it, could be because they don’t think animals deserve respect. People use animals in dog fighting, circuses, slaughter houses, shelters, and street fairs. Some of these examples might seem like they’re cruel, but if you were in the animal’s position, would you feel comfortable? An animal can’t even speak, so how would using them in these events be consented to them? An animal would rather be doing its own thing, not forced to perform difficult obstacles that humans are capable of doing. (Health Guidance)

Singer argues that the uncomplicated matter that animals have the capability to experience discomfort and joy puts them on an equal moral footing with human beings. Singer also condemns "speciesism," a concept like racism in which humans consider that they are authorized to use other creatures simply because they are members of a different species just in the way humans have exploited one another on the basis of race or gender or other perceived differences. Animals from factory farms have no legal protection from cruelty that. If the same acts were inflicted on dogs or cats it would be illegal. This only proves the discrimination there is when it comes to animal rights. Species are not considered to have equal values. Humans appreciate animals

Animals are a big part of many people’s lives. They provide companionship; they provide daily assistance to those that have deficits and are having difficulty functioning in their daily life; they provide security and help keep a watchful eye on things, plus so much more. And yet, with all that animals do for us, there are those that are treated with such little regard, care, and cruelty. They are unable to speak for themselves and therefore, they need a voice to speak for them.

The Vancouver Aquarium uses dolphins and belugas to provide entertainment and utilizes the profit gained, to aid them in research. In The Case for Animal Rights, Tom Regan’s moral principles state that there should be total abolition of the use of animals in science as well as for entertainment purposes (337). Moreover, he claims that humans and animals have equal values and rights. Based on this principle, I argue that the practices of the Vancouver Aquarium of using belugas and dolphins for scientific and entertainment purposes is immoral and thus unjustified.

Animal cruelty is when someone hurts an animal or does not care for its well-being. For example, depriving animals by not giving them food and water or locking an animal in a kennel for days or weeks without showing them any love and affection. Animal abuse and cruelty is wrong. Animals aren’t given their rights that they are supposed to have in the first place. Using animals as "lab rats" is cruel and unfair. Most animal abuse or cruelty goes on with nothing being reported. The punishment for abusing an animal isn't as harsh as it should be. There are not enough laws preventing animal abuse. Animals being caged up is unfair to the animals themselves. The cruelness of caging an animal up for days, weeks, months, or even years at a time with no food, water or care is the cruelest thing any human being could possibly ever do. Cruelty and neglect are also two subjects that must deal with animal abuse. Most animal abuse goes unreported and nothing has been done to fix the problem. Owners locking their pet up and leaving them for extended periods of time without food, water, or care is humane. The most common form of animal abuse steams from an owner locking their pet up for an extended period. By completely neglecting them and not giving them any care or attention. More than half the cases involving animal cruelty had to do with pets.