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Researched by Sidney S. |
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Introduction
Animals must be treated as our
equals. Animals have basic rights regarding life, respect,
maltreatment, and freedom. Many animals endure abuse, both
passive and active. I have had many great and important volunteer
experiences that relate to my topic.
Treating Animals as Our Equals
Animals do have feelings. That is why we need to follow the “fundamental demand”, treat other HUMANS and other ANIMALS with respect and dignity. It is wrong for us people to treat animals poorly. They deserve to have respect, dignity, and rights. You may think “Oh well, we have given animal rights so nothing is wrong.” Well, something is wrong there are four animal rights and five percent of all animal cruelty cases each day is 110. We need to take a stand and help animals.
The Animal Rights
Animal Rights are very important. The law states four basic animal rights:
1.
All animals are born with an equal claim on life and the same rights to
existence. 2. All animals are entitled to respect.
Man as an animal species shall not arrogate to himself the right of
exterminate or humanity exploit other species. 3. No animals
shall be ill treated or be subject to the cruel acts. If an
animal has been killed, this must be instantaneous and without
distress.
4. All wild animals have the right of liberty in their
natural environment, whether land, air, or water, and should be allowed
to procreate. Deprivation of freedom even for educational
purposes is an infringement of this right. (Singer 1996)
All
these rights are very useful to animals. These rights basically
cover a couple of things. These are animals have the right to
live, have respect, not be ill-treated, and be free. If you think
about it, we should already do these things without laws saying we have
to. Unfortunately, some people choose to go against these rules.
By having these laws it makes it easier to take care of cases of animal
cruelty.
Why Animals Need Rights?
It is amazing
how badly animals need rights. There are several reasons why
animals need rights. First of all animals have feelings to.
Jeremy Bentham said, “The question is not ‘Can they reason?’, nor ‘Can
they talk?’, but ‘Can they suffer?’.” This quote can really make
you think a lot about animals feelings. Animals are living which makes
them have feelings just as we do. So as you can see, animals need
rights to protect them from those who might make their lives
nightmares.
Types of Animal Cruelty
There are two types of animal cruelty. The first is called
passive cruelty. Passive cruelty is where the person performing
the crime did not intentionally want to cause the animal harm.
They just ignored the animal giving it pain and suffering. The
cases of neglect that are passive may include starvation, dehydration,
allowing a collar to grow into the neck, parasite infestations, failure
to see a vet when needed, and lack of good shelter in extreme weather
conditions. The consequences of a person committing these crimes
may include ignorance of situation (sadly), educating the owner then
revisit, or a warning and revisit. Even though there was no full
intension of hurting the animal, it is still animal cruelty making it
very wrong.
The other type of cruelty is called active
cruelty. Active cruelty is when the person who is performing the
crime does the crime with malicious intent. The person
deliberately, intentionally harms the animal in severe ways.
These cases of cruelty are probably the worst and most disturbing cases
of animal cruelty. Active cruelty is also known as Non Accidental
Injury (NAI). This type of cruelty must be taken VERY, VERY
seriously. The cases of this type of cruelty are anything the
attacker can think of. (Such as death of the animal and more.) Active
cruelty usually happens in violent homes. Many times the attacker
will kill or threaten to kill family members or people in the household
to make sure they do not tell. The consequences are very bad most of
the time depending on how bad the case was.
Effects of Cruelty
The
effects of animal cruelty are a very sad topic. Many animals die
because their owners were too careless to take care of them. This
is a chart showing the stages of hunger to regular health to obesity in
a dog and a cat.
1.
EMACIATED: Ribs, backbones, pelvic bones, etc. all prominent from a
distance. No visible body fat, obvious loss of muscle mass.
2. VERY THIN: Ribs, backbones, pelvic bones easily visible. No palpable fat. Minimal loss of muscle mass.
3.
THIN: Ribs easily palpated and may be visible with no palpable fat. Top
of backbone visible. Pelvic bones becoming prominent. Obvious waist and
abdominal tuck.
4. UNDERWEIGHT: Ribs easily
palpable with no visible fat covering. Waist easily noted, viewed from
above. Abdominal tuck evident.
5. IDEAL: Ribs
palpable without excess fat covering. Waist observed behind ribs when
viewed from above. Abdomen tucked up when viewed from side.
6.
OVERWEIGHT: Ribs palpable with slight excess fat covering. Waist is
discernable viewed from above but is not prominent. Abdominal tuck
apparent.
7. HEAVY: Ribs palpable with
difficulty, heavy fat cover. Noticeable fat deposits over lumbar area
and base of tail. Waist absent or barely visible. Abdominal tuck may be
absent.
8. OBESE: Ribs not palpable under very
heavy fat cover, or palpable only with significant pressure. Heavy fat
deposits over backbone and base of tail. No waist or abdominal tuck.
Obvious abdominal distension may be present.
9.
GROSSLY OBESE: Massive fat deposits on chest, spine, and base of tail.
Waist and abdominal tuck absent. Fat deposits on neck and legs. Obvious
abdominal distension. (Petabuse.com-animal neglect)
There are
many effects of animal cruelty. Some are good like an animal
recovering and getting adopted. But there are bad effects such as
animals becoming mean (resulting in putting to sleep), not recovering
and dieing, and dieing because that was the case of cruelty
presented. The effects of cruelty are even worse than the act of
cruelty. For the sake of animals, we need to stop cruelty!!!!!!!!
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