Animal Cruelty Shawn Brinkley Devry University Animal Cruelty Animal cruelty is something we hear about every day on the television from all the different shows. We think we understand the whole concept in which someone can be like that to an animal. The type of person that treats a animal like an object instead of a living breathing thing on this earth is someone that has certain issues that we all can not truly explain. Animal cruelty; what is animal cruelty? Is it cruelty to animals at any point, or is it just for self-glorification? There are many forms of animal cruelty.
Most see animal cruelty as a intentional hatred or violence towards animals in which the animals suffer for no known reason other than possible self-satisfaction or glorification of the individual. While some people only think of animal cruelty in the confines of domestic animals e. g. dogs, cats, and other household pets, it extends far beyond that. Cruelty to animals, also known as animal abuse or animal neglect consists of inflictions of suffering or harm upon animals of the non-human type. Animal abuse can be narrowed down to specific gain, such as killing animals for food or for their fur.
The term animal cruelty often arises when opinions differ in respect to the method of slaughter of the animal. Certain cruelty to animals encompasses inflicting harm for personal amusement or to fulfill zoo sadistic impulses, such as inflicting physical harm that can leave the animal disfigured. In looking into animal abuse or animal neglect you may find two different ways to approach the issue. Looking into this further, animal welfare has a position that there is nothing inherently wrong with using animals for human purposes, such as food, clothing, entertainment, and research.
Although this does mean these things have to be done in a humane way to minimize unnecessary pain and suffering to the animals themselves. Animal theorist have also criticized that these reason can be argued by the words such as “unnecessary” and “Humane” being that they are widely differing interpretations. One argument is to insure protection for animals by making them not to be considered as property and never used as commodities as well. The legal side of this is that the law is designed to prevent the needless cruelty to animals, like killing the animals for fun instead of utilizing the animal for food.
Specific countries may frown upon certain animals being used as a source of food having instated in the laws that the cruelty of this is something that will be looked over and not enforced. As a country does not enforce their own laws on the cruelty of the animals this leaves the wide variety of cruelty being looked at closely. Many countries jurisdictions vary around the world having enacted statutes for which forbidden cruelty to some animals may vary and in some cases by the use or practices. There are many reasons individuals abuse animals, cruelty to animals covers a wide range of actions or the lack of action.
As we learn about the animal abuse in the world we see certain patterns of behavior employed by most abusers. When we look into animal cruelty it is often broken down into two main categories: active and passive cruelty, this is also referred to as commission and omission. Passive cruelty is in which the cruelty is a lack of action rather than the action itself. Such examples are when a person does not feed the animal (starvation, dehydration and parasite infestations). Other forms are allowing a collar to grow in the skin of the animal because of over tightening and heavy restraints.
Inadequate shelter is another where in by the animal isn’t given shelter in extreme weather conditions. Active cruelty is where malicious intent is the driving force behind causing harm to animals. Examples of this are when the animal is hurt in any way for no reason such as, beating a dog so hard that they can’t walk for barking, shooting animals for fun instead of game or sport, and throwing a cat off a bridge to see if they can always land on their feet. These examples are active cruelty for the reason of plain enjoyment of the person conducting them.
Long before animals became part of the corporate industrial process, the ethics of the animals came first with the husbandry which is the care of the animals. This was the whole interest of the farmers they believed this was a major part in the raising of the animals. Animals were raised on diverse farms that produced crops and several species of animals having access to open pasture and barnyard when weather permits. Husbandry was considered the responsibility of the producers; now that this has all changed the conditions have become considerably worse. “According to one poll conducted by Oklahoma State
University and the American Farm Bureau Federation found that 75% of the public would like to see government mandates for basic animal welfare measures. ” (http://www. closeanimalfactories. org/the-issues/animal-cruelty/) Chickens are one of the top leading animals that are miss-treated. Hens sometimes live in a cage that is now bigger than a sheet of paper, causing them to grow into the wires of the cage and slowly dying from dehydration. These kinds of farms breed the birds for only one purpose. Other farms consist of thousands of hens breed just for laying eggs and nothing more. In the United States, an estimated 95% of egg-laying hens are intensively confined in battery cages. ”(United Egg Producers. (2008 Edition published 2003). Inside these cages they keep 5 to 6 birds in, but sometime they go too far and keep up to 10 birds. These cages are simply larger in size, but are made from the same material as the cages the size of a sheet of paper. The number of birds that are used like this will astound most Americans. “As of December 2008, about 300 million birds are confined in battery, almost one for every U. S. citizens. ” (USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service. (2008).
Pigs are another animal that is covered in the animal cruelty world very widely. The pig farms out there have many pigs that are breed just to breed or only live for a few months before they are slaughtered. Pigs have been used for testing on the side for their skin, because they have the closes skin type to humans this brings on the many test. Pig farms have become larger because of the slow push out of the smaller farms. “Since the factory systems took hold in the late 1960s, more and more pigs have been produced by increasingly larger operations where small pig farms start to disappear. ” (National Hog Farmer, 15 Feb. 002) Pigs are being used like they are machines instead of animals. Certain farms believe that they are just there for one purpose. Some farmers have stated this “Forget the pig is an animal. Treat him just like a machine in a factory. Schedule treatments like you would lubrication. Breeding season like the first step in a assembly line. And marketing like the delivery of finished goods. ” (Hog Farm Management Sept 1976). Throughout the nation there millions of pigs being used in these farms and live these kinds of live. Pigs in farms today are pumped with antibiotics because of the many different types of disease that are showing up. In the U. S. , antibiotics are added to 90% of starter feeds, 75% of grower feeds and more than half of finishing feeds for pigs” (Keep Antibiotics Working – Dec. 2003). The reason behind this because of the pigs being packed in cages that barely fit them. “Two-thirds of all pigs produced in the United States, or around fifty-three million animals a year, spend their lives in a total confinement pig farm. ” (Hog Farm Management Sept 1976). Animals being treat as a product is becoming more and more profound. These animals being treated as factories or just machines is something we as a society address on the behalf of the animals themselves.
Animals have been around for millions of years and yes we as humans do depend on them for survival, but we need to understand that many animals are being harmed for this. Animals are used for something every day of our lives from being something we eat, something that we cherish, something we make money from. Animals have made a difference in our live even if we don’t know it. The cruelty to animals is becoming an epidemic across the United States from the smaller animals of bird, dog, cats, and exotic animals.
The larger animals are becoming the main source of the cruelty from the chickens, up to the elephants in the circuses. Throughout the nation we have organizations that are willing to stand up for the animals and fight for them as well. The Humane society, PETA, and the animal activist out there are willing to step up to the defense of the animals themselves. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is an organization that believes that animals have rights just as humans. These rights fight for the animals to not be treated in humane in any way that a human would not be treated as well.
In conclusion, animal cruelty is a problem not only in our country but throughout the world. Simple reasons may have cause the cruelty and maybe they are caused by malicious intent of a person. Animal cruelty is something that can be addressed and stop throughout the world if we as people are will to step in. The steps needed to stop animal cruelty are slowly taking effect, from the interaction of law into the farms, to the government shutting down the larger production companies. Reference: The Center to Exposed & Close Animal Factories 2010 http://www. closeanimalfactories. rg/the-issues/animal-cruelty/ United Egg Producers. (2008 Edition published 2003). United Egg Producers Animal Husbandry Guidelines For U. S. Egg Laying Flocks. Retrieved November 15, 2008. Page 1, paragraph 6. USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service. (2008). Chickens and Eggs. Retrieved December 16, 2008. page 1. Joe Vansickle, “Quality Assurance Program Launched,” National Hog Farmer, 15 Feb. 2002 http://www. animalsuffering. com/resources/facts/factory-farming. php J. Byrnes – Raising Pigs by the Calendar at Maplewood Farm – Hog Farm Management Sept 1976