Animal Cruelty

About time to give animals their rights, right?

Animal - what comes to your mind when you hear this word? Perhaps something furry, something feathery, something slimy, something with a beak or lots of sharp teeth, - right? I am sure this what comes to almost everyone's mind when they think "Animal".

However, do you think of life, a beating heart, and receptiveness to stimulants, feelings, and a struggle for survival amidst tremendous odds? Take a minute to stop and think of this; after all, animals aren't the cuddly stuffed toys that you see in department stores.

They are living, breathing creatures, given a life just as we humans have. They too have to live, eat, survive, and live their lives. But there is a huge difference between the way animals live and the way humans live. Animals have to struggle for survival; they have to fight for their lives. They do not people to help take care of their babies for them, to cook for them, no family members for guidance and help - the things that humans tend to take for granted. No. Animals are solely on their own from the minute they take their first breath to the minute they take their last. They have to eat for survival, defend themselves with nothing except themselves, build their own homes, take care of and protect their young. To them life is an extremely tough existence, and they have to make do with whatever they have and cannot demand for anything more. Sounds kind of harsh, doesn't it? Yes, that's an animal's life! The world today is becoming less aware of the pain and suffering being inflicted on animals.

As a result, animals are becoming even more and more downtrodden in society. Humans have, and continue to, treat animals as if they are property, as if we can own and therefore control their lives and what happens to them. This is immoral, animals are here for themselves, animals have their own lives, and they think, have feelings, feel pain, require love (from their own species), feel emotional hurt, have families, and everything else that humans do. To just simply say that non-human animals should have no rights because they're "defective" is a mindless statement! People come to this "conclusion" because they come up with some mindless babble like, non-human animals can't talk, drive cars or vote, and therefore they have no non-tradable properties. Well answer me this; do non-human animals have the right to exist in their natural environment and express behavior that matter to them? We withhold non-human animals the very basic rights, simply because they don't resemble humans.

Since they have it so harsh, why do we humans take pleasure from inflicting pain on them, from killing them? They have no defense; they do not have guns and rifles, they do not make traps and snares, nor can they retaliate. Hunting, poaching and shooting for pleasure, or "sport", is both sadistic and extremely cruel. Sadistic because, you kill something that cannot defend itself in any way, something who can run only so far away from you before you catch it. Poaching an animal because of its beautiful ivory tusks or its strong horn is very unfair and signifies greed. Humans can get anything they want, they can buy anything they want in a store, but these beautiful assets of tusks and horns are God-given, and they are the elephants' and the rhinos' to keep, they are a part of their body. The same goes for snake and crocodile hides; they are the reptiles' skins! If only poachers could stop to think and imagine themselves being shot down by a huge crocodile or an elephant, and then be stripped of parts of their bodies, they could be a little more compassionate.

No doubt, some animals have not been fairly treated by humans over the years. E.g.: Wolves, bears, snakes... People loathe and despise these poor creatures, children are taught to hate them and kill them on sight if they ever do run into one.... Why? Please, lets ask ourselves, why?? What is so terrible about them? To the wolf-haters: Has there ever, ever, even once been a case of a wolf attacking and devouring a human? No? I thought not. Wolves are apparently "scary" because they howl at the moon at midnight. So? Don't humans sing their lungs out, daytime or midnight? Wolves are also "scary" because of their teeth; but those long, jagged canines are for eating. Wolves are carnivores, they eat meat, hence the teeth. What do we expect them to eat, coffee with chocolate chip cookies???

Please leave wolves alone; they are beautiful, gorgeous animals, with long thick fur and supreme agility.

Bears... yes, our cuddly little teddy is created after the big grizzly bear! Isn't teddy soft and furry? Yes, so is the grizzly! Apparently, they are "scary" because they are huge, furry, "ill-tempered" animals.... Yes, they are huge, they are furry, and that's where their beauty lies. Ill-tempered? Well, most people who have observed the bears temper have usually walked to within ten feet of it and made a noise, or clicked pictures of it. Obviously the poor bears get disturbed and frightened. How would the same person like to have a bear coming up to him and taking his pictures, with some blinding flashlight?

Animal fighting rings are an extremely disturbing, and the biggest, cruelest aspect of animal abuse. I have watched several television programs on them; they are especially created to inflict the maximum pain and physical damage to a creature.

Let us take the example of cock-fighting rings: Baby male chicks, as soon as they hatch, are kept in isolation, in order for them to become as antisocial, and aggressive as possible. They are fed on diets that are not normal for chickens; no seeds, no grains for these unfortunate birds. Instead, daily injections of steroids and "pumping-up" vitamins are a part of their diet, to physically alter their appearance, and make them grow to unnatural sizes. Their legs are plucked once they start to spurt adult feathers, and from then on the legs are shaved daily to prevent any feathers. Why? The legs are kept bare so their keepers can attach metal blades and/or artificial claws all through the length of their legs. It gets worse: they are also kept featherless so that the blades and claws of the opposite fighter bird can inflict as much as damage and bloodshed as possible. Now, the actual fight: The two fighter birds are thrown into a padded box, and people stand around and cheer their favorite one on - as they have bet large amounts of money on it! Do they stop to think the amount of extreme pain the poor birds suffer? After a bloody fight, the two birds are