Animal Cruelty effects and relating laws
Different types of animal cruelty have ee around for many years. Laws relating to animal cruelty vary from state to state. As of 2009, about forty-six states have some felony provisions in their anti-cruelty and/or animal fighting laws (Wisch, 2005). As time passes and new things are being invented, people seem to loose interest in their pets. Even though people use animals for their testing/experiments, there are other ways to get a solution to something.
Scientist and many others, find it easier and safer to test on animals than to test on other possible sources. They test products such as makeup, and cologne. They also use animal fur for designer clothing & other types of fashion. Innocent animals are being used for useless products that we can live without. Many animals die due to different types of crucial testing. They suffer by going through several procedures. The goal is not to patch up ailing people but to use the human tissues in place of mice, dogs or other lab animals for testing new drugs, cosmetics and other products (New York Times, nd). With the donation of human cells, animal testing will be reduced. This way is safer & can be both suited for animals and humans. “If the animal- rights movement had a bible, it is Singer’s 1975 book, Animal Liberation” (New York Times, Jan. 15, pg 30). Singer calls many of the attitudes human beings have toward other animal’s speciesism, a concept which can be found throughout history (Gargaro, 1991). Humans are just like animals as far as feeling pain.
Eight billion animals are killed each year in this country for food. More than a thousand animals are killed and shipped to groceries stores to be bought. Slaughtering of cows, pigs, and other animals, happen everyday because consumers keep purchasing meat. Animals on today’s factory farms are kept in crowded, filthy enclosures and denied everything natural and enjoyable to them. Most of them have no legal protection from cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on dogs or cats. There are some fruits or vegetables that can give the same protein as meat. The Humane Slaughter Act requires that animals be rendered unconscious with one swift application of a stunning device before slaughter. Animals in slaughterhouses can smell the stench, hear the sounds and often see the slaughter of those before them. As the animals struggle from fright, the human workers who are pressured to keep the lines moving quickly often react with impatience towards the animals. Numerous cases of deliberate cruelty have been reported including workers who took sadistic pleasure from shooting the eyes out of cattle, striking them in the head, and electrically shocking them in sensitive areas of their bodies. As for the chemistry of the central nervous and endocrine systems, there is no difference between humans and other animals. All free-range, factory-farmed, egg-laying, dairy-producing, or wool-bearing animals that don’t first die from disease are trucked to the slaughterhouse. To minimize costs, animals are crowded and must live in each other’s excrement. They are exposed to extreme weather conditions in the open trucks. Shipping fever, which can be fatal, is common in cattle transported long distances to the feedlots, the stockyards and then the slaughterhouse (Compassionate Action Institute, nd).
Animal cruelty can be either deliberate abuse or simply the failure to take care of an animal. Either way, and whether the animal is a pet, a farm animal, or wildlife, the victim can suffer terribly. People with emotional problems may beat, shoot, or stab animals or set them on fire. Neglect is not giving an animal the right food, water, shelter or vet care. Their misery goes
on for so long; animals who die of neglect can suffer just as much as animals who are harmed on purpose. All U.S. states have animal cruelty laws, and 47 states treat some forms of abuse as felonies. Farmers and researchers can do cruel things to animals that other people can’t do legally, but all states have some protection for pets like dogs and cats. There are different cases in animal cruelty, for example cockfighting and dog fighting. Animal cruelty has not gone away. In Brea, California, 85 children, ages ranging from kindergarten through 12th grade, witnessed a cow being slaughtered at Carbon Canyon Christian School, according to PETA Action Alerts. The rational for having the student’s witness this cruel act was that they could see this act, instead of only experiencing it through the books they had read during the year. Chances are if an animal is being abused and there is a child in that household, then the child is also being abused. Chances are that a child abusing an animal can grow up to be someone who commits other violent crimes. Studies also found that a history of animal abuse was found in 25% of male criminals, 30% of convicted child molesters, 36% of domestic violence cases and 46% of homicide cases (The National Animal Abuse Registry, nd). While prosecution of animal cruelty cases is generally considered the exclusive purview of law enforcement, veterinarians who routinely examine and treat sick and injured animals occupy a unique role in the legal process of identifying cruelty and bringing its perpetrators to justice.
People engage in animal cruelty, otherwise known as animal abuse, in every city throughout the world. There are many reasons why people mistreat animals – some individuals act on sadistic desires – others act unintentionally, harming animals with their carelessness. But the true abuse is systemic, involving the choices we make as a collective. Animals are used as dummies because people think they aren’t harming anyone by doing so. In the past few years, organizations and individuals have been using the power of the internet to spread awareness of animal cruelty facts – a great sign considering animal abuse will only continue on a massive scale until enough people come face-to-face with the statistics. To fight this abomination, activists, scientists, authors, lawyers, and politicians have sacrificed their valuable time and money, occasionally their lives, to save suffering animals. With gratitude to those who accumulate animal cruelty facts and educate the populace, people are finally taking notice of suffering animals and the mistreatment they undergo.
