One minute you are driving down the street, happily jamming out to the music playing in your car until you drive by a house with trash all over the yard. You slow down and notice a beat up metal cage next to the house with several dogs inside. The bottom of the cage is covered in feces and there is barely enough room for any of them to casually walk around not to mention lie down. Their water and food bowl appear to be flipped upside down and the grass surrounding the cage is so long it looks as if it hasn’t been touched in months. Before you pass by the house, you get a better view of the dogs. Their rib cages are very visible and they jump up onto the fence, barking as loud as they can as if begging, pleading to be released from the torture they have been going through. The owner bursts out of the house, heads straight towards the cage with a blunt object in his hand and starts screaming. You speed off because you don’t want to see what is about to happen but that situation and the image of such cruelty will be engraved in your memory for years because it was so sad and disturbing. Situations like this are not limited to the United States but happen everywhere around the world. There are several forms of animal cruelty and abuse in addition to the neglect described above, such as hoarding, using animals in laboratory testing, and keeping animals isolated and locked up in captivity. In society today, people may not think much of it, but after looking at the facts about
The mistreatment of animals is a serious problem within our society for a variety of reasons. While current laws and conditions are improving, there is still a
Many people do not report cases of animal cruelty. Reports of animal cruelty are less common than crimes against people. This is because the cases do not go through state agencies. The animals that come to mind when someone mentions animal cruelty is often Dogs and cats. These animals do have a higher percent rate, with dogs at 70.1%, cats at 20.9% and all other animals at 24.1%. The percent’s come from cases that people report. If people were to fill all cases of animal cruelty, the rates would be much more different. A common form of negligence is people taking their animal to a place far from home to just leave them there. Animal control pick up these animals everyday and send them to shelter. For the most part the animals have a healthy portion of food and they have shelter from the environment. Most shelters are kill shelters. No-Kill shelters become less common to their counterpart. Animals not adopted within a certain period of time undergo euthanasia. This keeps room for more animals. No-kill shelters protect the animals and help rehabilitate them. The other 24.1% is the factory animals. The purpose of a factory animal's life is a food source. So the owners mistreat their animals because the animals purpose is to be a food source. It is almost as if they do not matter. They deserve animal rights just as much as the other animals do.
Animals are beaten and abused on a daily basis due to barbaric individuals. Whether it be from harmful intentions or pure negligence most cases go unreported. “Deliberate cruelty may involve beating, shooting, stabbing animals, or setting them on fire. Neglect is not giving a necessary food, water, shelter, or vet care” (Human Society). The lack of attention and care for these animals can often lead to severe, and sometimes irrevocable damage. The Animal Legal Defense Fund, ALDF for short, website tells of one story where neighbors of a farm complained to the local humane society, “that the Colliers were neglecting many animals on their farm, including dogs and horses. When they went to their property to investigate, they discovered dogs and horses in several states of neglect and starvation and seized them out of concern for their immediate health”(ALDF). Sadly, however, it can become much worse for animals. Owners will sometimes purposefully abuse their animals. Unfortunately, occurrences like these are hardly uncommon. One such example, from the RSPCA of England, the Royal
What is animal abuse? For starters, animal abuse is when a person inflicts suffering or harm on any animal. Most people, all over the world own an animal; but there are still far more animals left out on the street. Homeless animals are either left out on the streets or are “thrown” into shelters. This became a problem because not all animals are domesticated. Animal shelters began as pounds. “When the system began to be used to impound wandering dogs and cats, these animals were often killed because little monetary value was placed on them” (Lila Miller, Animal sheltering in the United States: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, 1) . This issue persists because shelter workers and others truly believe that an animal life has no value, but that is not true; animals are living beings just like humans with brains, hearts, and bones. A reported case was that “authorities had seized 23 puppies, 11 cats, and four adult dogs from a self-processed animal “rescue” after they were found in the “rescuer’s” filthy home.” (‘No-Kill’ Label Slowly Killing Animals, 3). This means that an unauthorized person hoarded many animals and forced the animals into an unsafe “shelter”. The shelter being a dirty home.
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.)
There are two types of animal cruelty, “cruelty can be manifested in two ways: actively and passively. Active behavior includes ‘acts of commission. Passive behavior ‘includes acts of omission and negligence” (Tanner, 2015). Animals are very smart creatures, no matter their size or looks. Animals should not have to suffer from humans acts. Since animals have a failure of speech, they cannot speak for themselves, which means they are helpless to stop being abusively controlled by humans. Everyday animals in the United States and in other countries are abused and, neglected for no particular reason
Every 60 seconds an animal is abused. Dogs, cats, horses, and many other types of animals are being neglected and tortured everyday, yet resulting in few and minor consequences for the perpetrators. Animal abuse is prevalent in the United States and has been an ongoing issue since the 1970's, and prior to. Society as a whole has chosen to avoid the facts and arguments about animal cruelty, because to some it is seen as acceptable and typical. It becomes much more frowned upon when people actually see the results of the cruelty, especially in the media.
There are many animals who deal with abuse everyday, and that is not okay. If an animal is neglected or abused the pet will be taken away and the caretaker will be charged $1,500. Animals are very loyal, such as dogs, dogs are one of the most loyal animals you can own. When abused, they don’t know where they went wrong. They only know that you are mad at them. Animals, such as humans, shouldn’t be abused or neglected. Most animals who are abused or neglected are usually abused unintentionally, but the second most are abused on purpose. The people who abuse animals on purpose sometimes deal with mental illnesses, were abused as children, or have a hard time dealing with stress or anger. Animals are just like humans who have been abused. They are usually skittish and shy. People tend to see animals differently than humans, but they are the same in my eyes. For example, if I locked you in my basement, starved, and beat you, I’d be charged with attempted murder and kidnapping. Pets have the same rights as you to live freely, but people don’t see it. You are able to live on your own and take care of yourself, but they
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.
Animal Cruelty is described as “the deliberate abuse or simply the failure to take care of an animal” (Miller, 2016). The maltreatment of animals in society today is an issue that is continuously addressed without much actual change. Laws are established but not fully implemented to those who break the law. Some of the most common forms of animal cruelty include dog fighting, puppy mills, horse slaughtering, neglect, and animal experimentation. Dog fighting is a common form of gambling in the United States where dogs are forced to fight each other for the entertainment and profit of the spectators. It is considered a felony in all 50 states; however, it continues to be an ongoing issue in the U.S. and internationally. Behind the actual dog
Each year billions of animals are being tortured, blinded, scaled and used. Humans create these devastating events that occur. Animals experience pain and confusion throughout their life. There is great entertainment seeing animals in circuses and zoos but, there is a very dark side on how the animal performs. An elephant is beaten and trained until they are stripped from their spirit. Breeders are breeding large amount of animals, and shelters are becoming increasingly crowded. Animals are even sharing breathing space. The ignorance of our society is convincing that breeding animals are honorable. In reality, society is not just using animals for entertainment and breeding, but mass production of food. People are killing these animals
In America, we come across serious environmental issues about poverty, domestic abuse, ending world hunger ect. Animal cruelty isn’t one of those topics that isn’t being put out there more. We see it all around like the commercials on tv that tell you to donate money to help the poor stray dogs. People don’t see how much damage we can cause to them, but if we got together we can help stop this madness. In the article, Counting cruelty: Challenges and opportunities in assessing animal abuse and neglect in America it briefly says “Cruelty to animals is a crime.” (Lockwood 87). Laws were made for this problem way back. Our laws help keep society in a proper place with no hysteria.Which means people like us should pay attention more to our surroundings.
“Imagine being abused by someone you trust and who is supposed to love you, and to make the situation worse, you can’t use your voice to cry out for help. Animals are like humans except they can’t tell people to stop.” Animal cruelty and abuse, a good website, said that. I think that is a big problem we need to fix. People hurting animals just because they can’t speak out for themselves. Some people take advantage of that. And it us up to humans to tell those people to stop.
Each year, the most extreme cases of animal abuse receive media attention. Yet, the animal cruelty problem is more widespread than is reported in the media. Animal abuse and neglect is a nationwide issue, affecting thousands of animals nationwide. Cruelty to animals is defined as the infliction of physical pain, suffering or death on an animal, beyond what is necessary. There is a need to stop abusers from acting in such a horrific manner–preventing the neglect and suffering of the animals. What causes animal abusers to act in such a cruel way towards animals? How are cases of animal abuse being managed, and how should cases be handled? Finally, does the status of animals in society contribute to the rate of their abuse?
In the last decade, the views and forms of animal cruelty have changed. Many people have different views of an animal’s rights or purpose. Some people believe that animals have no rights and are a piece of property to be utilized by humans. To others, animals can still be used by humans, but they have emotions as well. A few people consider that only certain animals with high intelligence like chimpanzees or monkeys, should not be used by man, and they should have all the rights that man has currently (“Animal Rights” , 2009). Domestic violence has a correlation with animal abuse. In a survey, 71% of domestic violence victims also reported that their abuser also targeted pets/animals. The most common animals who are abused are cats, dogs, horses,