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Researched by Samantha P. |
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Animals are a big part of the world. People use
animals for pets, food, fur, wool, leather, transportation and many
other things. Some people aren’t very nice to animals. Sometimes people
may intentionally hurt or even kill animals. Some people like to watch
animals fight each other and get tortured. There are organizations that
help animals like the Humane Society of the United States of America
(HSUS)
Careers Related to Helping Abused Animals
Cruelty Caseworkers investigate, charge, and interfere in many
different types of animal abuse cases. They might work for PETA
or a similar agency. They act on behalf of the animals involved to
figure out who did the crime and why. Caseworkers make sure abusers
obtain justice, so they can’t repeat their crimes.
Veterinarians perform a variety of services such as spaying and
neutering. They take care of people’s pets and provide emergency care
for pets. Some work in private practice, while others are employed by
the Humane Society, PETA, or other groups. They need strong
organizational skills, a DVM degree, a state license, and experience.
Animal behavior counselors work for the Humane Society or other groups
to help make animals adoptable. They help to develop good
behavior programs for animals in the animal shelter. Often they
advise callers on the “help line” or give advice by email. They also do
telephone consultations and private training sessions. Many
assist in pet behavioral appointments: training and follow-up.
Some will train staff, volunteers, and the community about animal
behavior. A few assist in developing written materials for pre and
post-adoption support services with regard to behavior and training.
Humane law enforcement (HLE) agents make sure people follow laws about
the care of animals. That might mean rescuing cats and dogs that have
been abused by their owners, or making sure that horses that pull the
carriages in parks are treated fairly.
A pet therapy handler brings pets to greet people in nursing homes,
hospitals and schools. This is an amazing way to get people smiling,
happy, and tails wagging.
An animal control officer enforces county and state laws that have to
do with animal abuse. The complaints are handled professionally. An
Animal Control Officer teaches the community about being responsible
when you have a pet. They check the safety of animals in the county.
Future
In the future there may be less animal abuse because more people are
becoming informed. There are more organizations that help animals and
the number of members who belong to those organizations are
growing. More and more people are getting involved in preventing
animal abuse so hopefully the future for animals will continue to get
better.
Laws
Federal laws allow some exceptions to animal cruelty rules. Laws often
allow some animal cruelty if it is religious, political, scientific,
educational, journalistic, historical, or artistic.
Animal abuse is a Felony in Washington, which means that you can be
sent to jail, but not in all states. In Oregon it is a misdemeanor,
which usually means you just pay a fine. Below is a simplified
version of the Washington Law
Washington Law: 16.52.205. Animal cruelty in the first degree (a
felony)
A person is guilty of animal cruelty when he or she purposely
∑ inflicts enormous pain on,
∑ causes physical injury to, or
∑ kills an animal by causing too much suffering.
∑ Or causes a minor (child) to do any of these things.
Washington Law: 16.52.207. Animal cruelty in the second degree (a
misdemeanor)
A person is guilty of second degree cruelty, if their action isn’t
quite first degree, but the person knowingly, recklessly, or with
criminal negligence
∑ inflicts unnecessary suffering or pain upon an animal,
∑ does not provide necessary food, water, shelter, rest, sanitation,
ventilation, space, or medical attention and the animal suffers pain as
a result. (If the person truly cannot afford to take care of the
animal, this may prove their innocence.)
∑ Abandons the animal.
Reasons Abuse Occurs:
Those who abuse animals often do it because of emotional and/or
physical abuse they received. Sometimes abuse occurs because
people don’t know how to properly take care of an animal. Animals
are sometimes used as bait to teach other animals to become more
aggressive or to fight each other. Some believe people become
more abusive by watching violent TV shows and video games. It is
easy to abuse animals because humans have control over the
animal. What’s easier to kill than a small kitten or puppy?
Sometimes if a person gets bitten or scratched by an animal they want
to hurt those types of animals, and then animals in general. They
might start abusing because they want to be cool or fit in with a
group. Some people threaten to hurt or kill someone’s pet in
order to hurt or control them. Many serial killers have a long history
of animal abuse. Children may participate in abuse if they see
someone they know (mom, dad or sibling) abuse an animal. If a
child hurts an animal and gets away with it they may do it more. People
should report any abuse to a facility.
Organizations
There are 10 million members in more than 400 animal protections groups
in the United States.
PETA stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA was
founded in 1980. In 1981 uncovered abuse in experiments and made the
first arrest of an animal experimenter in the US to be charged with
animal abuse, it was the first supreme court victory for laboratory
animals! PETA is responsible for break throughs like stopping horse
slaughter, and military animal testing (shooting animals and putting
animal in wound labs). PETA activities have changed how companies like
McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, Safeway, Target, Rite Aid, Texaco,
Shell, Mobil, and how many other companies do business.
HSUS is the Humane Society of the United States
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)
is the oldest group and has been around for 100 years and has 400,000
members.
SHARK stands for SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness
Types of Abuse
People in our society eat meat. In order to do that animals have
to be killed. This is sad, but unavoidable unless you are a
vegetarian. Some methods are better or more humane for raising
and slaughtering animals to obtain their meat. Some methods and
some meat suppliers use worse, less-humane methods.
Restaurants
The suppliers for Kentucky Fried Chicken have been accused by PETA of
doing terrible things to chickens. Reporters and agents have shown that
these chickens suffer at their huge factory farms and slaughterhouses.
There are more than 750 million chickens killed each year because of
KFC. The employees send the chickens through the stun bath. The stun
bath stuns chickens by electrocuting them. Then they get their throats
slit. 6 chickens ovoid the stun bath and are vary conches when there
neck hits the blade. A reporter witnessed that a chicken got away and a
worker grabbed its wing and through it on the floor, which broke the
chicken’s wing. The workers seam to have fun hurling, stomping,
kicking, squirting tobacco juice in the chickens face, squeezing the
chickens extremely hard, tearing wings, and rip the chickens legs right
off their body and writing on the walls with chicken blood. The
reporter didn’t complain to the manager because when the manager walked
by he said, “Hold your fire!” after he had past he said “Carry
on!”
Pet Stores
PETCO as we all know is a pet store, but PETCO sometimes does very
cruel things to the animals that live in the store. When PETCO
employees notice a sick or injured animal the throw the animal in the
garbage still alive, put it in the freezer to die, stomp the animal to
death or leave the animal in the back room without food, water, or
veterinary care. All the animals that end up in those situations suffer
and die. PETCO paid $900,000 to resolve animal abuse cases. Once a
woman wanted a sick rat so she could save its life but the manager said
that two weeks before a man had already bought the rat for food and was
going to pick the rat up today. So PETCO would sell a rat for food
instead of give it a nice home.
Bull Fighting
Bull fighting is a very cruel activity. In bullfighting the bullfighter
may stab a spear into the bull from the safety of a horse. Usually the
bull falls to the ground from bleeding so much that it is too weak to
stand. The bullfighter sometimes cuts the back of the bull’s head then
cuts the ear off for a trophy. As the bullfighter does this the crowd
cheers, they seem to enjoy watching this animal get tortured. Almost
always the bull is still alive and feels every cut and scratch. The
bullfighter may also stab a sword between the bull’s shoulders. Then
other people run around the bull to make him move, so the sword cuts up
its insides. The very last thing that happens is that the bull gets
dragged out of the arena by ropes. Bullfighting is most common in Spain
and is a very sad thing. Almost all of the bulls that are involved in
the abuse are killed.
Cock Fighting
Cock fighting is a very cruel sport and it happens almost everywhere.
Before the roosters begin to fight their owners give them drugs like
amphetamines, epinephrine, and caffeine. Cock fighting almost always
takes place in a pen. After the roosters have fought, the winner and
the loser have both suffered and have severe injuries such as broken
wings, punctured lungs, and gouged eyes. Every year usually 1/3
to 1/2 of the roosters are killed. Wild roosters do fight but there are
certain things that some people do to their roosters, which make it
unnatural. In the wild the roosters are not in a pen and can usually
run from a fight. They also are not given drugs in the
wild.
Circuses
Circuses travel 12,000 miles a year and they take animals in hot cages
that are hardily big enough for the animal to stand up and turn around
during travel, which make the animals uncomfortable. All of the animals
in the circus have their teeth and claws removed and are beaten or feet
burned as they learn tricks. The animals are punished if they don’t do
their tricks. The reason animals do their tricks is because they are
afraid of getting beaten.
Factory Farms
Factory farms are cruel farms that keep the animals in extremely small
cages that are no bigger than the animal itself. The small cages don’t
even provide enough room to turn around. The animals in factory farms
live there for a short period of time then they are slaughtered. But
before they are slaughtered they don’t live a very good life.
Experimentation
Animal experimentation is inhumane and may kill the animal or put it in
extreme pain. People experiment on animals because animals react
somewhat like humans. But 17-22 million animals are killed each year,
and 90% of them are rodents. The main reasons for animal experimenting
are so products like shampoo are safe for people to use. Animal
experimenting also happens in schools, when you dissect a frog. It has
been killed and you are experimenting on it. Animals that are used in
experiments usually come from a shelter or pound. Even Iams experiments
on animals. People have used animals in experiments for more than 2000
years. Others have protested for over 400 years. Some alternatives are
not to do so much research, or a machine could analyze the drugs toxins
and chemicals like MRA instead of experiment on the animals, or
computer programs simulates functions and interactions, or cell
cultures are performed in test tubs. Some organizations want animal
experimentation to keep growing.
Hunting
100,000 years ago people needed to hunt so they could eat, but now
people hunt for the sport of it. Now because people hunt many animals
have been driven extinction. If a hunter kills an endangered animal he
or she might claim there is too much of that animal. In one hunting
season 134 million animals are killed. Hunters may even shoot the
animal but only injure it so the animal suffers.
Domestic Animal abuse
Abandonment is a common domestic abuse. People abandon animals, because
they sometimes don’t have enough money to take care of the pet or they
have puppies or kittens and don’t want them, so they leave their pet on
the side of the road or maybe even in a park. The animal may be found
by another person and brought home but usually not. Usually the animal
runs off in search of food or water and gets lost and dies. Some
puppies or kittens are abandoned before they can even walk so they die
of thirst or hunger. So many animals wouldn’t be left out on the
streets if people would spay/neuter their pets.
Neglect is one of the most common domestic abuses. Neglect is when an
animal is left without food or water. Some animals get so skinny they
die. Some times when a family goes on vacation they don’t get somebody
to take care of their pets while they’re gone so the animal starves.
Neglect is common in classrooms because on the weekends nobody is in
the classroom or the person whose job it is to feed the animals may
forget or be sick, so the animals starve.
What We Take from Animals
Habitats
Rapid city development, pollution, and unrestricted hunting are some
things that ruin an animal’s habitat. DDT that was used after
WWII had washed into lakes, rivers, and steams. There, plants and fish
absorbed it. When birds ate fish with DDT in then and got DDT into
their body. When the birds laid eggs the shell was to thin so babies
died in the eggs. DDT banned in 1972. Bald
Eagles, California condor, Brown Pelicans & Peregrine Falcon were
all affected by DDT.
Fur
It takes a lot of animals to make just one fur coat. About 5
million animals each year are used for fur coats and almost all of them
are raised on ranches. Ranch raised animals are kept in small wire
cages that are hardily bigger than the animal. As the animal is in its
cage it can’t do natural things like clean itself, in fact it can’t
even turn around! It’s even painful when they catch the animals. The
most common way they catch animals in the wild is the steel jaw leg
hold trap, this trap grabs on to the animals foot and doesn’t let go.
When the animal tries to free itself it hurts itself more. Some animals
are so desperate that they gnaw their foot off leaving it in the trap
and then die from loss of blood.
Tusks
Some tusks are very valuable. The tusks that are very valuable are
called ivory. Ivory comes from elephants and other animals. Ivory
weights about 240lbs. Poachers would kill an elephant, rip off
its tusks and leave it there. Ivory is one of the reasons why elephants
are endangered. The ivory is worth a lot of money and is hard to
get.
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