Animal Abuses Essay Example

Animal abuse refers to acts of violence directed towards animals. However, neglecting animals can also be termed as animal abuse, where individuals do not take care of animals. People are continually overlooking the benefits of animals and are repaying them with cruelty. Human life would be tough if we did not have these 'friends.' New ways are invented by humans to harass animals, ranging from dog fighting to killing of certain breeds. Sometimes animals like rabbits are subjected to animal experimentation. Before a medicine is made available to the public, it is first used on the laboratory animals. Animals end up dying if the experiments go wrong since the drugs are on trial. Other activities such as inflicting physical pain on pets to punish them are common nowadays. Animal abuse is a severe problem in modern society, but something can be done to end this cruelty. Although there may be challenges in implementing the solutions, animal abuse will be reduced with time.

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The number of animal abuse cases being reported each year is astonishing. About 5% of the cases involved dogs, as cats follow. The close friends of man do not escape cruelty with statistics showing that about 21000 cats and 66000 cats are tested in the laboratories every year. Although the Animal Welfare Act regulates the welfare of animals in the United States, the absence of federal law makes protecting animal rights difficult (Grugan, 2018). In the United States, many states have laws that consider the abuse of animals a felony, but animal cruelty is still a problem. Innocent animals continue to suffer in the hands of men. Cases of animal cruelty may be known only through other cases such as domestic violence. In the United States, about 67% of incidents regarding animal cruelty are made after there has been an arrest.

Several reasons exist to justify animal cruelty. In many parts of the world, meat is considered an essential source of food. However, animals that produce meat are usually subjected to harsh living conditions, in full, dirty shades. Meat production is, therefore, a reason for animal abuse. Also, the entertainment industry has furthered the cases of animal abuse. Animals used in circuses are sometimes mistreated sometimes leading to their deaths, all in the name of entertainment and animals used in the production of movies are not safe either. The innocent creatures may sometimes be seriously injured when shooting a movie. For enjoyment, some people record videos of themselves harassing animals and share them on the internet, leading to more people abusing animals (Thomas 2018).

People with psychological problems have been known to be harsh with animals with those individuals that had been inflicted to abuse is more likely to be cruel to animals. Although many people practice animal abuse without knowing, no reason justifies the unfair treatment subjected to animals. Individuals involved in animal abuse are usually connected to other criminal activities. About 66% of the situations are connected to other criminal cases. The incidents may have gone unreported if other crimes were not reported. Most states also support the collection of data to help in combating this menace (Thomas 2018). Animals should be treated with respect and their living conditions improved and animal abuse discouraged as no reason is good enough to practice it.

Subjecting an animal to any form of abuse may affect the animal severely. When humans try to punish their victims for wrongdoing, the result is usually a broken bone or physical injuries. Sometimes the poor creatures cannot handle it anymore, leading to death. Also, animals living in unsanitary structures are likely to be infected and infested with parasites. Kids who have witnessed animal abuse are more likely to practice animal cruelty or be abusive in their future relationships. The kids are also expected to get involved in other crimes later in life(Lockwood &Arkow, 2016). When people witness animal abuse or watch videos of animal cruelty, a process begins, in which the witnesses indulge in animal abuse and other forms of crime, leading to a society where violence is the order of the day.

Although the cases of animal abuse may be many, something can be done to reduce them. The first thing the individuals should do is create awareness. In their defense on why they were cruel to animals, people say they were not aware they were abusing the animals, especially those who neglected the animals. People should be educated about animal cruelty. Creating awareness would constitute stating what activities affect the animals and how to identify an animal abuse situation. Skinny animals show that they are not fed well. Also, some animals living outside could suggest animal cruelty. Pets that are afraid of their owners show that they have been mistreated while limping animals could be a sign of abuse (Wuerch, Price, Knutson &Wach, 2017). Identifying what constitutes an animal abuse would be important in dealing with animal cruelty.

To deal with animal abuse, any activity related to animal abuse should be reported to the relevant authorities. The authorities include law enforcement agencies, animal control departments or other organizations dealing with animal welfare. The witnesses can further help by recording all the details regarding animal abuse. The details could include the description of the person carrying out animal abuse, the location, time and the type of animal being abused. Other witnesses could also be essential to collaborate the story with video recording even better (Lockwood &Arkow, 2016). Reporting an animal abuse case is very important, but the witnesses should not attempt to save the animals since it is illegal. The witnesses can further testify in a court of law.

Harsh laws on animal cruelty could help to reduce the cases of animal cruelty. The laws could include all aspects of animal cruelty. Although there are various laws about animal abuse in different states, federal law should be made regarding such matter and severe consequences faced by those found guilty. The issue of using animals in the laboratories for scientific experiments should be regulated to reduce the miseries of the animals. Also, the killing of certain 'weaker' breeds should be made illegal because the animals did not choose to be born belonging to that type. Instead of killing the young ones, the people should have controlled the mating of the animals to avoid production of the breeds(Hartman &Hageman, 2018). Laws should also be made to control the conditions in which animals live, may it be meat producing animals or pets such as dogs.

Another way to deal with animal cruelty is by volunteering to help an animal. An injured animal could be taken care of while the homeless ones could be given shelter. The shelter could be temporary until the animals find new homes. People should volunteer to feed hungry animals, which may have run away due to cruelty from their owner. If the animals are too much for an individual, the person could take the animals to centers where other people can adopt the animals or the owners collect them. People are continually overlooking the benefits of animals and are repaying them with cruelty, which should not be the case (Levitt, Hoffer &Loper, 2016). By helping the animals, their suffering is greatly reduced.

Although an institution dealing with animal welfare may want to use the above solution, problems may arise in accepting the answer. Creating awareness may not work since some people abuse animals for entertainment. The people are well aware of the harm they are causing the animals, but they enjoy doing it. Creating awareness, therefore, does not reduce animal cruelty cases (Hartman &Hageman, 2018). Also, reporting the problem to the relevant authorities may not go well with the audience, because the people abusing the animals may be their friends or their loved ones. The people may, therefore, fail to report because they do not want their relationship with people responsible for deteriorating. Reporting and testifying in a court of law may be difficult since most cases of animal cruelty are connected to other violent crimes.

The audience may have a problem accepting harsh penalties since some people would say that the existing regulations such that allow animal use in laboratory testing serves for the betterment of human life. Sometimes animals like rabbits are subjected to animal experimentation. Someorganizations argue that testing medicine with humans instead of animals would lead to human deaths; hence animal testing is a necessary evil. However, it is not true as other methods of drug testing can be used and animals also feel pain like since they are alive too. Methods that do not involve both humans and animals could be devised (Arluke&Patronek, 2017). Also, volunteering to take care of injured animals would consume a lot of resources as the abusers are free to do whatever they want.

Conclusion

Animal abuse is a severe problem in our society, taking several forms such as physically subjecting the animal to pain and allowing the animal to live in poor conditions. Although many animals are exposed to animal cruelty, dogs are the likely victims of animal abuse. Animal cruelty affects the animal in many ways, and it may even change the people in the society; hence it should be discouraged to ensure morals of the society are not eroded. Harsh penalties for animal cruelty will reduce the cases of animal cruelty since most people will not want to face the consequences. Since animals are voiceless, everybody should join hands to deal with the growing problem of animal cruelty, to make sure we do not repay animal kindness with animosity.

References

Arluke, A., Patronek, G., Lockwood, R., & Cardona, A. (2017). Animal hoarding. In The Palgrave International Handbook of Animal Abuse Studies (pp. 107-129). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Hartman, C. A., Hageman, T., Williams, J. H., &Ascione, F. R. (2018). Intimate partner violence and animal abuse in an immigrant-rich sample of mother-child dyads recruited from domestic violence programs. Journal of interpersonal violence, 33(6), 1030-1047.

Grugan, S. T. (2018). The companions we keep: A situational analysis and proposed typology of companion animal cruelty offenses. Deviant Behavior, 39(9), 1153-1169, www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01639625.2017.1409985

Levitt, L., Hoffer, T. A., &Loper, A. B. (2016). Criminal histories of a subsample of animal cruelty offenders. Aggression and violent behavior, 30, 48-58.

Lockwood, R., &Arkow, P. (2016). Animal abuse and interpersonal violence: the cruelty connection and its implications for veterinary pathology. Veterinary pathology, 53(5), 910-918.

Thomas, V. C. (2018). For Your Entertainment: Researching Animal Cruelty Under the Big Top.

Wuerch, M. A., Giesbrecht, C. J., Price, J. A., Knutson, T., &Wach, F. (2017). Examining the relationship between intimate partner violence and concern for animal care and safekeeping. Journal of interpersonal violence, 0886260517700618, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0886260517700618