The Consequences Of Animal Cruelty

Animal Cruelty is a subject that spreads far across the United States and into most civilized cultures. Animal cruelty can either be in the form of intentional abuse, simple neglect, or abandonment of animals.  Whatever forms the abuse takes, however, the animal that is the victim of the abuse is often helpless and may experience extreme suffering. Animal right activist feel if you don’t know how to take care or treat an animal it can be as deadly as physical abuse to care for one.

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.

Animal cruelty is any mistreatment to an animal of any size or kind including wild animals. The most common acts of animal cruelty recorded by the RSPCA are as follows;

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.)

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.

For one to completely understand animal cruelty one must know how animal cruelty is categorized. Animal cruelty was first categorized as a symptom of conduct disorder by the American Psychiatric Association in 1987 (McPhedran; 2008). Conduct disorder is defined as “a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others are major age appropriate societal norms or rules are violated” (American Psychiatric Association; 1994 as cited as McPhedran; 2008). To be diagnosed with conduct disorder, a person must have at least 3 of the 15 symptoms of the disorder presented. Other symptoms of conduct disorder include persistent patterns of aggression towards humans, lying and deception, theft and/or robbery, and

Unfortunately today there are many cases of animal abuse happening around the world. Animal cruelty or animal abuse can be defined as the infliction of suffering or harm upon animals for purposes other than self-defense. There are many different types of abuse such as using animals for research, using animals for entertainment purposes, abandoning animals to shelters, and animal neglect. We need to raise awareness and find a solution to these issues. Animals are suffering and we need to help them.

Animal Cruelty “We need, in a special way, to work twice as hard to help people understand that the animals are fellow creatures, that we must protect them and love them as we love ourselves.” (“Quotes About Animal Cruelty”, n.d) This quote was conceived by a very wise man, César Chávez, cofounder of National Farm Workers Association and an avid Civil Rights activist. Approximately, “65% or 79.7 million U.S households own a pet.” (Levitt, Lacey, Hoffer, Loper, n.d) In today’s society, animal cruelty has affected millions of animals and people worldwide.

The most cruel type of animal abuse is to farm animals. Did you know that chickens spend their whole lives in small cages that they can barely fit in? Or that male chick eggs are either thrown into a trash bag to suffocate and die or are chucked into high speed grinders, while still alive? Slaughter houses are where all the action happens. The chicken's legs are shackled together, their throats are cut, and they are thrown into very hot water to remove their feathers. This is unfair to farm animals. Male chickens do not get to live for one day before they are murdered.

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?

For years, animals have been a form of entertainment whether it has been in movies, shows, circuses, or for a romantic night out. Most families love this type of entertainment because it is kid friendly and believe it is cool to watch animals do all kinds of tricks. But do they ever wonder what really goes on behind closed doors? Entertainment animals have had to endure a lot of pain, depression, and torture in the process; aside from that not all of them have that “happy ending.”

The weather outside is harsh. The wind is blowing and the temperature is below freezing. Imagine being locked in a cage and left unprotected from this weather with small portions of food and water that has turned to ice. Now imagine being yanked from this cage and bashed on the floor, stunned, and now skinned alive. Does this sound cruel? Does this sound like something that no creature should ever have to endure? This is something that is experienced by many different types of animals across the world every single day on “fur farms.” Animals are left out in the cold to produce their thickest fur coat and then skinned for that fur. This process happens to approximately sixty minks in order to make one coat (RandomHistory). It is almost impossible to fathom the amount that this must have happened just to create all the mink coats in the world, much less the amount killed if you include all of the other species used to make coats. The saddest part of it all is that this is only the beginning of the multitude of horrendous things that happens to the most innocent of God’s creatures. God put animals on the earth to make man’s life better and to survive not for man to disrespect and torture them. Animal cruelty is overlooked and ignored and it’s time for people, all people, to stand up and defend these animals and be their voice.

We are living in the world that everybody tries to have a better life. We try to have the comfortable and convenient life for us. We are watching the circus and using them as the therapy to release stress and depress. However, we don’t know the fact that in order to make the circus become more complete, they have to take away many animal’s freedom. All those things is an example of animal abuse. Animal abuse is the term that describes all the harmful acts toward animals which are harmed by people either by intentional or unintentional. Other than our general understanding of animal abuse, we will go through types of animal abuse, why human should care about it, and what should we do.

In today’s society makeup is becoming more and more popular. Makeup brands are constantly coming out with new products made of different ingredients that they think will pull people in. Where do these ingredients come from? How do they know they’re safe for people? Makeup brands are using innocent animals to make sure that these products aren’t going to be harmful to people. But of course they don’t know if they are harmful before they test them on animals. Many high end makeup brands test on animals without anyone even knowing.

“Over 56 billion farmed animals are killed every year by humans. More than 3,000 animals die every second in slaughterhouses around the world. These shocking figures do not even include fish and other sea creatures whose deaths are so great they are only measured in tones.” (“animal equality”) Animal abuse can be many forms, some of which are animal testing, fur farms, or neglecting an animal and abandoning them on them (“Types of Animal Cruelty”). When people think of animal cruelty, they often think of violence inflicted on an, animal but animal cruelty is the causing suffering or harm intentionally to any animal or It can be not caring properly for the animal.