Animal Cruelty

ANIMAL CRUELTY
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
Mahatma Gandhi

Imagine yourself being kept in a tiny cage with many others, with barely enough room for everyone to lie down or sit properly.

Animal Cruelty is defined as depriving an animal of food, water, shelter, and/or veterinary care. Torturing, maiming, or killing animals is also animal cruelty.

There are many different reasons why individuals abuse animals. Animal cruelty covers a wide range of actions, so one blanket answer simply is not possible. Each type of abuse has displayed certain patterns of behavior that we can use to help understand more about why people commit the crimes we encounter today.

Animal abuse comes in many forms - from senseless acts of neglect and intentional harm, to the unspeakable treatments lab animals endure in the name of science and research, to the ghastly treatment received by animals on food farms.

Animal cruelty is often broken down into two main categories: active and passive, also referred to as comission and omission, respectively.

Passive Cruelty (Acts of Omission)

Passive cruelty is typified by cases of neglect, where the crime is a lack of action rather than the action itself - however do not let the terminology fool you. Severe

animal neglect can cause incredible pain and suffering to an animal.

Examples of neglect are starvation, dehydration, parasite infestations, allowing a collar to grow into an animal skin, inadequate shelter in extreme weather conditions, and failure to seek veterinary care when an animal needs medical attention.

In many cases of neglect where an investigator feels that the cruelty occurred as a result of ignorance, they may attempt to educate the pet owner and then revisit the situation to check for improvements. In more severe cases however, exigent circumstances may require that the animal is removed from the site immediately and taken in for urgent medical care.

Active Cruelty (Acts of Comission)

Active cruelty implies malicious intent, where a person has deliberately and intentionally caused harm to an animal, and is sometimes referred to as NAI (Non-Accidental Injury). Acts of intentional cruelty are often some of the most disturbing and should be considered signs of serious psychological problems. This type of behavior is often associated with sociopathic behavior and should be taken very seriously.

Animal abuse in violent homes can take many forms and can occur for many reasons. Many times a parent or domestic partner who is abusive may kill, or threaten to kill, the household pets to intimidate family members into sexual abuse, to remain silent about previous or current abuse, or simply to psychologically torture the victims, flexing their "power".

Animals in situation of cruelty are silent victims, who may be threatened, injured or killed by violent people, that could be a family member or in some cases, animals are used to entertainment in places like circus, where in the major of cases , animals are abused.

Some circus like Ringling Brothers, use animals to entertainment and it don´t care if they have the minimum conditions of health and comfort. In my research I find that many organizations have done in several occasions denounces about this situation, but unfortunately, they have not been listened.

The idea that it is funny to see wild animals coerced into acting like clumsy humans is primitive and medieval. It stems from old idea that we are superior to the other species and have the right to hold dominion over them.

The fact is, animals do not naturally ride bicycles, stand on their heads, balance on balls. To force them, trainers use muzzles, electric prods, bullhooks, and other painful tools of the trade.
We applaud trapeze artists, jugglers, clowns, tightrope walkers, and acrobats, but let´s leave animals in peace!

Every year, more than 3 million dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, and other animals are euthanized because they were born into a world that does not have enough homes for them.

For every one companion animal who lives indoors with a human family and receives the attention , health care, and emotional support that he needs, there are thousands just barely surviving.

Fortunately, there are some organizations like “PETA”, “GREENPEACE” etc., which are dedicated to protect the animals by human´s cruelty. These organizations make different campaigns to fight against Animal Cruelty.

It is very important teach the children that we must protect and respect animals. If they learn that when they are young, they would do it and next generation could be successful in animal`s preservation.

We must protect earth´s Animals. If we don´t do it, everything in this world, would be seriously damaged.

"One of the most dangerous things that can happen to a child

is to kill or torture an animal
and get away with it."

Anthropologist Margaret Mead