Animal Cruelty Every year, the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) takes

“In the arms of the angel, Fly away from here, From this dark cold hotel room and the endlessness that you fear” (McLachlan, 1998). These words are instantly remembered by many people from the 2007 ASPCA commercial. This song is known for being associated with sad and heartbreaking events, and paring it with animal cruelty would release a surge of emotions in the audience, which is exactly what the creators of the ASPCA commercials were targeting. ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) is a non-profit organization created to receive monthly donations in order to save the lives of innocent animals being abused and neglected (ASPCA, 2014). The commercial is trying to persuade animal lovers and pet owners to donate to the ASPCA to help support the means to prevent animal cruelty. From the heart-wrenching pictures of abused animals, to the slow and sad music, the ASPCA uses a variety of narratives to create an advertisement that almost anyone with a heart can’t resist to act upon.

Murder and abuse cases never fail to startle society. Moral codes are flouted with unmatched rigorousness by these indubitable egregious crimes. Sufferers in these cases are often people. Nonetheless, these callous obscenities should not be seen as less important when animals are the victims. Animals undergo horrendous abuse due to barbaric individuals, greed, and unnecessary lab testing.

Children who live in homes where animal abuse is present are often abused themselves and unfortunately, sometimes carry on with the cycle of abuse later on in life. “More than 80 percent of family members being treated for child abuse also had abused animals. In one-third of the cases, a child victim continued the cycle of violence by abusing a pet (“The animal abuse home violence connection”, 2013).”

Many people would answer that they should, as both human animals and nonhuman animals share many characteristics in the sense that they are both sentient living beings; both can feel pain, experience distress, and can die from injuries. Unfortunately, even after decades of research, there are many who simply continue to ignore that animals can have feelings; furthermore, many of these people continue to portray a cruel indifference towards

There are many different things that fall under the category of “cruelty”, neglect and abuse being the two main subcategories. The most common type of animal abuse involves dogs, Pit-bulls in particular. In 2007, of 1800 media-reported cases of animal cruelty, 64% (1,126) involved dogs, 18% (337) involved cats, and 18% (337) involved other animals. Some of the most common places where animal abuse occur are, in no particular order: fur farms, dog fights, laboratories, races (both Greyhound and horse), slaughterhouses, and puppy mills. Some less thought of forms of animal abuse are crush videos, traditional Chinese medicine, the cat/dog meat trade in Asia, the ivory trade, trophy hunting, and even shock collars. Abandonment is the leading form of animal cruelty. (See illustration.)

“The No Kill Advocacy Center defines ‘irremediable physical suffering’ as an animals who has ‘a poor or grave prognosis for being able to live without severe, unremitting pain even with comprehensive, prompt, and necessary veterinary care,’ such as animals in fulminant organ system. But some shelters and their allies have suggested that the definition is too narrow as it does not allow for mental suffering” (Bekoff, Marc). In this quote, it shows how they are doubtful, but in this article, we are trying to prove why they are wrong. Also, we are going to prove how and why that animals can feel emotional trauma and how they are wrong and inconsiderate of non-human emotions. In this article, he asks if animals feel emotional trauma that causes them to want to die. His response was, “of course they can. Without getting into a long discussion of whether animals have a concept of death that incorporates their knowing that if they die the pain will end, there can be no doubt that animals who are suffering profound emotional trauma want it to stop right now, just as we would” (Bekoff, Marc). It clearly states that he believes that animals do feel emotions just as we do. Animals feel same as

Have you ever wondered why a dog might refuse to go into the basement, most likely they were mistreated or abused? This is very sad, now what ASPCA does, is they try to stop animal cruelty. They help the animals find good homes and families. The money they get, goes towards helping the animals or paying their workers and making sure that the dogs get as best care as possible. This is an organization that takes in mistreated animals, then gets them care. After they are 100%, they will find a new home. As you walk down the street and see multiple animals that are hurt and abused,like trash and maybe they are not even alive.

Do animals feel pain? Do they suffer when in distress? Almost all animal research is conducted for better understanding of human diseases and illnesses, rarely are animals used for the benefits of animals. Is the pain felt by animals worth the advances in human understandings? I will discuss what animals are used for, why they are used, the ethical dilemma of animal research, laws relevant to the study of animal experimentation and my personal stance on the matter.

Consequently, he determines the only way to justify moral worth is by the beings capacity to suffer. Through a variety of scientific and legislative reports, Singer then defends that animals in fact possess the ability to suffer (Singer, 1977). He does however, concede that human pains have the ability to be more complex than that of another animal (Singer, 1977). This refers to a person’s fear of being killed by a murder or emotional pains evoked from intricate and bonding human relationships. That is not to say the less complex form of suffering animals and infants alike experience warrants a lesser concern (Singer, 1977).

The fact that like humans, animals feel pain should be enough to consider animals’ interests and we should have responsibilities towards them. These responsibilities, however, should be limited to animal welfare. Animals cannot be given human rights because they do not posses the same traits human beings do, and conversely, human beings do not have the abilities or traits that animals have. If we follow Singer’s position and extend this non-speciesist principle of equality to animals, then huge aspects of our traditional ways of life would be dramatically changed, just as moving toward less racist and sexist social structures bring about radical

Re ¨ A Change of Heart about Animals¨, ¨Hooked on Myth¨, and ¨Of Primates and Personhood: Will According Rights and ‘Dignity’ to Nonhuman Organisms Halt Research?¨ In these three articles the authors argue that animals are able to feel not only pain but also emotions similar to humans.” What these researchers are finding is that many of our fellow creatures are more like us… They feel pain, suffer and experience stress, affection..”( Rifkin par. 2). Although unaware to their feelings for example, “ Fish don't cry out or look sad or respond in a particularly recognizable way.”(Braithwaite par. 1) They do feel pain as they have nociceptors, which detect damage. “All creatures that can feel pain should have basic moral rights.”(Yong

I'm going to argue that human beings and animals suffering should be given equal consideration. We as superior intelligent animals, we should take animal's suffering into consideration because we hold all these concepts of what's wrong and what's right and we should take care of weaker animals, just as we do with our children.

How would you feel if you passed by a hours every day and seen a puppy on a chain leash that was too heavy for its neck, look under-nourished, and as it got older that same chain leash was on its neck getting tighter? This is an example of what I experienced as a child and these images will always stay with me. Rascal was a harmless german shepherd that was beaten daily, starved, and left out in the cold. Rascal experienced one of the many forms of animal cruelty and abuse. Cruel cases just like this one happen every single day, all around the world. Animals should not have to go through torturous events such as these, they do have a mouth to tell us when to feed, bathe or shelter them.

Animals are subjects to inhumane treatment by the hands of many individuals, however there is little done in order to protect them from this form of physical and neglectful treatment. Though there are several laws against this type of conduct, a great deal of animal abuse is unforeseen and these animals are victims whom cannot protect themselves. The state of New York describes felony animal cruelty as, “intentionally and without just cause seriously injuring or killing an animal” (Iannacone 2011). Yet often, individuals are not punished harshly for their crimes against animals. There are a number of reasons as to why individuals are cruel towards animals, ranging from: unintentional ignorance, personal gain such as money or food,

Animal cruelty has been a topic of concern for organizations such as the ASPCA and PETA, and people who care for animals’ well-being. Animal cruelty is defined as “knowingly causing unnecessary pain and/or suffering and not providing proper needs like food, water and shelter.” Animal cruelty is now a federal offense in all 50 states. For example, in the state of Utah, animal cruelty is a misdemeanor with different severities, dependent on if it is knowingly done or done with aggravated cruelty. Aggravated Cruelty is defined as “torturing and administering poison without legal privilege.” Neglectful owners are the main cause of this epidemic and should change how they view their treatment to animals. It is important for neglectful owners to be concerned about animal cruelty because it is linked to domestic/child abuse, the illegal dog fighting world and must think about people who may have a unique connection to animals and their feelings.