What Is Animal Cruelty?

What is animal cruelty? We see it, hear about it, some even cry over it, but do we honestly know what it is? Animal cruelty can be defined in many different ways but to sum it up its infliction of something or harm upon animals. Animal cruelty can be for human gain too, as in, food, fur, and entertainment this is wrong and in some places illegal. Edward Freeman, English historian and commentator, says "the awful wrongs and sufferings forced upon the innocent, helpless, faithful animal race form the blackest chapter in the whole history." Freeman's views are completely true. If we cannot respect the animals of this country, than we cannot respect mankind itself.

Many animal's get abused every day, but whom, how, and where? In Home environments dog's and cat's the most likely abused because they are the most common house pets. In laboratories, rats and mice are mostly abused. How? There are two ways to approach animal abuse. First, animal rights theorists say we need to ensure protection for animals and ensure not to use them as commodities. In this approach laws for animal cruelty are designed to prevent needless cruelty and protect themselves or for food. Then, the animal welfare position says nothing's wrong with it if it's done in a humane way. In this approach you minimize unnecessary pain and suffering. This is for the uses of food, clothing, entertainment, and research. What about the area, urban or rural? Well there is no certain way to tell if you tried to add up the numbers. The numbers would be wrong due to the number of animals verses the number of abused reported. The world has no way of knowing the number of abuse animals in the areas. Animal cruelty is worthless and is wrong.

Animal abuse can be categorized into passive or active abuse. Passive abuse is cases of neglect, such as starvation, dehydration, parasite infections, allowing a collar to grow into an animal's skin, not having proper shelter, and failure to seek proper vet care. Active abuse is when someone deliberately and intentionally cause harm to an animal. These acts may be indicators of serious psychological problems. As Robert K. Ressler, former F.B.I serial killer profiler says "Murderers.... very often start out by killing and touring animals and kids. Offenders with physiological conditions frequently have childhood histories of conditions serious and repeated animal cruelty. People who abuse animals are known for child abuse, spouse abuse, and elder abuse as well. A pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, Pythagoras, says, "For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love." When it comes to animal abuse weather your inflicting passive or active abuse you're still responsible for your own actions.

There are many ways you can be considered an "abuser". One can be hunting and harvesting where on more than half a billion acres, more than two hundred million animals, a year, are killed. In 60% of U.S. refuges hunting is permitted but 45% of hunters kill on public lands. Every year thousands of endangered animals are killed by poachers to sell on the black market. More than half a million seals are killed every year because competition with humans for remaining fish. It's crazy that we can't live in peace hand and hand. Obviously mankind is more animals today than animals are themselves.

Believe it or not but animals are abused for our pleasure every day. Next time you go to a circus think of how cruel and suffering training is, also beware of the elephants!! Since 1990, captive elephants killed 43 people due to harmful training. In bullfights more than 40,000 bulls are killed a year. The animals are tortured for over an hour, getting speared in the backs, before they die a slow, painful death. In marine parks killer whales and dolphins live in only 25% of their natural expectancy when captive. Dog races are also another way of animal cruelty in the entertainment industry. Up to 50,000 Greyhounds are killed or sent to experimentation a year. Owners send their dogs away when they are no longer profitable for the racing industry. Everybody likes a good show but not everyone knows the harmful secrets behind the scenes.

Animals are used for factory farming and animal experimentation. In the meat farming industry over ten billion animals are slaughtered for human consumption each year. Hens are usually kept five to six in a 14 inch square cage and 20% of them die of stress or disease. On dairy farms at least half of ten million cows live on factory farms and this causes tremendous suffering to the animals. Cows of the 1990 have lived only four to five years as opposed to the expectancy of 20-25. An Irish playwright and critic by the name of George Bernard Shaw once said, "Atrocities are no less atrocities when they occur in laboratories and are called 'medical research". He was referring to animals in research laboratories. In a medical research lab, research accounts for only 3% of medical advances in this country. Over 70 million animals a year are tortured and killed in U.S. cosmetic labs. That's not to mention that rabbits are routinely blinded by testing. As for the tax payers, they contribute at least five billion tax dollars every year for this. Now to think of all the animal shelters our tax dollars could go to. We could help animals with our money but instead we're paying to torture, kill, and blind them.

A big fur coat is elegant, classy, and warm but if we were meant to have fur we would've been born with it. Approximately 3.5 million fur animals are killed by trappers every year. That's not to mention the 2.7 million harvested on fur "farms". It's estimated that more than half of all fur garments are from trapped animals. It takes 18 red foxes to make one fox-fur coat and 55 minks for one mink coat. Statistics show by 2002, 22% of all species will be extinct if no action is taken.

Courtney Emken says, "Animal abuse is next to animal abuse and I don't know why they think this is no big deal". In Mexico