Animal abuse is a very common thing around the world and it can occur in many different forms such as neglect, industrial animal farming, violence, cultural rituals, abandonment, unnecessary experiments, animal fighting/racing, circuses, tv, and filmmaking. All of these are real things that occur and they don’t always happen in these places. Around the world, animal abuse is a pressing issue that doesn’t get the recognition it needs due to a lack of knowledge about this topic and a lack of reinforcements as well.
When Maloney was writing her big topic was about the lack of knowledge on animal cruelty. She had started with “Unfortunately, animal cruelty is a very broad definition and is open to wide interpretation.” When Escobar was writing her intake on this knowledge she had said “I had an overwhelming response from authors all over the globe, and from a myriad of academic and practitioner backgrounds, who were writing about topics ranging from animal abuse and interpersonal violence, wildlife crime, animal-assisted therapy/animal-assisted activities, animal rights, the state of animal sheltering today in the US, the recent passage of Ag-Gag laws and others too numerous to mention.” That gave us more insight into how little everyone knows. “In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, American and European societies were well aware that animals could be abused, women could be battered and beaten by their husbands and boyfriends, and children could be neglected and victimized sexually, physically, and psychologically. Despite this knowledge, social scientists largely ignored these separate forms of violence as well as the connections among animal cruelty, family and intimate partner violence, and child abuse.” Like Escobar mentioned, people separate animal abuse and human abuse when they are the same. People know the types of abuse and know what it is but they can say something animals can’t so people believe that nothing is going on.
Although when many are accused of animal abuse they said it was unintentional or that they didn’t know that that could be considered abuse. When thinking abuse greyhound racing you think of a sport for animals to run but, it’s the things you don’t know. “Every year, thousands of young and healthy Greyhound dogs are killed merely because they lack winning potential, were injured while racing or are no longer competitive.” (ASPCA) This is a big thing many don’t know about I know I’m one of those people we all know this is considered animal cruelty but there is no stopping people from doing this in many places. “Racing Greyhounds routinely experience terrible injuries on the track such as broken legs, cardiac arrest, spinal cord paralysis, and broken necks.
They suffer off the track as well: Dogs caught up in this cruel industry spend most of their lives stacked in warehouse-style kennels for 20 or more hours a day, or are kept outdoors in dirt pens with minimal shelter” On top of all those injuries and the constant time being locked you they never get time to go out unless it racing, they aren’t properly cared for. They never go to vets are given barely any food and water, this causes the animal’s health issues. In Palmer’s writing she communicates, “Despite a significant improvement in animal protection laws across all 50 U.S. states in recent years, many argue more needs done to combat and detect animal abuse.” many states haven’t made laws against animal cruelty and the states that have made law they are very broad and aren’t taken very seriously. “For the 11th year in a row, Kentucky was ranked the worst of all the states for animal protection laws, followed by Iowa (49), Wyoming (48), Utah (47) and North Dakota (46). According to the report, Kentucky needs to implement a number of laws that other states have implemented to improve its ranking, including increasing penalties when abuse is committed in the presence of a minor or involves multiple animals, enforcing restrictions on future ownership or possession of animals if a person has been convicted of abuse and enforcing felony provisions in cases of neglect or abandonment.” these places know that they aren’t doing well and they have yet to take action to change this problem they have continued to let it go on with the help of these laws it wont take away this issue completely but it will help decrease this issue. With the two statements above about law regulations and how people believe animal fighting could not be abuse they believe that since the laws have changed that there has been a decrease in animal abuse it like comparing the decrease of human abuse after those laws past it has changed very little people are just more careful where and how those events occur.
Then there’s the topic about animal fighting and racing many believe that they are safe before anything bad happens they stop it. Animal fighting can lead to animals being very injured and some even died. Animal racing, on the other hand, seems safer but what happens to the animals when they aren’t racing. When they can no longer race they are thrown to the side to die. Like in the recent statements animal fighting and racing that can harm an animal and can lead to death. In Hamilton writing, she questions how Pennsylvania is handling the care of the animals in their state “But giant billboards along a main highway call attention to a less appealing local industry. ‘WELCOME TO LANCASTER … HOME TO 100’S OF PUPPY MILLS,’ reads one sign. It was paid for by Last Chance for Animals, a national animal-advocacy organization that opposes commercial breeding facilities where hundreds of puppies are raised in cramped metal cages without proper food, veterinary care and often even fresh air.” when entering the small Amish country when this billboard is posted outside of there is no change in how these animals are treated because they have yet to apply any effective laws and enforce these laws. She continues with, “And with that has come a backlash, especially in states like Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri, where there is a high concentration of breeders. There, and even at the national level, a movement is under way to ensure that the U.S.’s most popular house pets, many of which are purchased during the holiday season, are raised in humane conditions. ‘No pet store will tell you that its puppies come from a puppy mill,’ says Ed Sayres, president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, ‘but these animals are commercially exploited to generate the highest amount of profit at the lowest possible cost.’”
With the research and the words from Hamilton and Ed they both communicate that these animals are being used for profit they aren’t treated will until they are sold and when people are looking at them other than that they are treated horribly. In Williams writing about animal hoarding about what it is and how it is affecting the animals and the owners. “Animal hoarding tends to produce significant emotional responses from the public, as was evidenced after the TV documentary, ‘The Horse Hoarder’ was aired on Channel 4.” After the airing of this show and many more like this one people became more aware of this issue and tried to help but after so long people just stopped trying there are many out there that try to stop this but they’re not heard enough for people to make a change. “Often, dead animals are left to decompose in a property (Berry et al 2005) and deliberately stored (Patronek and Nathanson 2009), sometimes in freezers (Vaca-Guzman and Arluke 2005). Hoarders may also allow their animals to take over a property; to sleep, eat, play and defecate anywhere (Steketee et al 2011).” Williams and many more have written about the consequences that happen to this animals when they are left with no one to care for them or the owner doesn’t have the money to care for all of them. With many studied going around that might tell us why animal abuse is a thing they have researched into this topic and believe that mental issues play a factor into why this happens. “This topic is under-researched, therefore it is not clear what mental health disorders may be present in, or driving, it. Obsessive compulsive disorder had, until recently, been thought to cause object hoarding, but now other behaviours and maladaptive thinking are thought to be more likely.” (Williams) they also believe that this is not the only thing that can cause this there are many different things including how the child is raised what events occurred in there life. In this text, Adams right about a serious and disturbing issue occurring that kids are injuring and killing animals and the only people to blame is the caretakers and the parents.
“In the early morning of July 24th, 1992, while residents of a northern Bronx, NY, neighborhood slept, 10 animals, part of a summer day camp for children there, were hacked to death. The savage intruder, still unidentified, left bloody lamb, pig, goat and rabbit carcasses scattered about their pens.” these kids weren’t taught right from wrong and no one was watching them so they were tortured to death. “a 10-year-old boy in Raleigh, NC, put a pencil up an 8-week-old puppy’s rectum. The puppy died as a result,- the youth, identified by witnesses, was convicted in juvenile court and put into a year-long counseling program.”(Adams) this incident did end up with a consequence but many of these go unknown and we don’t know what is happening to the child during this time and what will occur after this is another case where the child was not taught right for wrong or the parents didn’t enforce it enough and he was left alone causing this unfortunate event to occur. Robbins had done a research paper on a topic that relates animal abuse to human abuse many believe they are very different things but they are the exact same thing but done on different species they come in the same for and can end in the same way the only difference is law see it different people can be sent to jail be put on probation where with an animal they don’t do anything about it or they have to do counseling like the little boy that stuck a pencil up the puppy rectum.
Robbins begins with “A woman left the battered women’s shelter where she had been staying to return to her abusive husband.’ She decided to leave the shelter after receiving pictures of her husband cutting off her dog’s ears with gardening shears. He sent the ears too. In another family, Jamie O’Farrell forced his girlfriend’s daughter, Christine, to watch as he repeatedly punched his dog, Princess, in the face and kicked her across the room for chewing on his telephone, mini-blinds, and pomographic magazines.” This woman believed that she was the cause for the abuse on her child and left the place where she was safe to help those who it progressed on to. Robbins also mentions another story with this family “Later, O’Farrell again forced Christine to watch as he punched and kicked Rocko, a friend’s dog. O’Farrell also threw bottles at the dog so that they broke and cut Rocko’s face and body. That time, he used the abuse to threaten Christine. He told her that if she ever reported his sexual abuse of her, he would do the same to Dusty, her beloved dog.” The man threated to abuse the dog if she would tell because he wouldn’t be able to do it to her anymore. With this story and many more and research, they have a strong belief that animal abuse and human abuse correspond and if they see it happening to one than its most likely happening to the other. In conclusion, there are many different forms of animal abuse and with the lack of knowledge on this topic is a large part of this problem but, with the change of knowledge will create a big impact on how this changes in the future so communication with friends and family about this topic can save another animal and can potentially save a human.
