Solutions for Cruelty to Animals

Chapter 1: Activism And Activists

What is Activism and what are Activists? Activism is when a person, or a group of people is to campaign to bring a change in the society or in the government, usually to do what one believes is right. Activists are the most important component of activism as they are the ones who speak out to bring the change for what they believe in. In the case of animal cruelty, a few activists are Faye Carey, Genesis Butler, and Thomas Ponce.

Faye Carey is a teen activist who, aside from her other jobs, and her school work, still makes time every Friday to work at the pound. Faye started at age 16 after working at a pound for a year to still see a puppy still there from the first day she entered the pound. She then got on a website called trade me and advertised the puppy there. Instantly the post got a lot of likes and after a while the puppy found a new home with a loving family. Faye still works, but instead works at her own animal shelter where she is still doing what she has been doing for 5 years. (Newshub, 2013)

Genesis Butler is a Activist at only age 10! She spoke to give a speech about animal rights at age 10 and even earlier at age 8 started her own organization to raise money and to justify that animals are not being mistreated, and prior to that at age 4 became a vegetarian, and at age 6 became a vegan and also persuaded her family to do the same. She also won the first ever Carlee and Laurie McGrath Young Hero for Animals Award and the title of PETAr's cutest vegan kid in a contest in 2015 according to peta.org. (Kretzer, 2018)

Thomas Ponce is a 12 year old activist who created a website called Lobby for animals which helps activists become more active on the topic of animal rights by making persuasive phone calls, putting up posters, and writing letters all to get the attention of people to focus some of their attention to the problem of animal cruelty and animal misuse. Thomasr's other reason to why he wants to do this is because he speaks up for those who cant speak for themselves which led him to say, We have to remember, we are speaking up for those who cant speak up for themselves; we are the voice of the voiceless and we need to be heard! (The Pollination Project, 2018)

Activism can happen anywhere at any age from when you learn to speak to the day before you die, and thatr's a good thing because that means that you can act on anything. Activists are everywhere and are continuously trying to stand up for what they believe in and you can do the same. Stand up for what you believe is right and make a difference for the better and also for what is right.

Chapter 2: Animal Abandonment

Animal Abandonment is a form of animal cruelty. It hurts animals, and it causes a problem. Animal Abandonment can come from anyone owning any sort of pet. It occurs for many reasons but the outcome is always a pet ending up being returned to a pound that is overcrowded or is discarded in a cruel way.

Animal Cruelty happens when a owner passes away, cannot maintain to keep a pet anymore, or realizes that keeping a pet is too much responsibility. To solve these problems the owner has multiple choices, to drop the pet off (anonymously or known) to a pet shelter/pound, to release the pet into the wild, and ways that are plain cruel. Examples of cruel abandonment would be selling their pet to companies that only care of profit or dumping their pet in a trash can. (Anders, 2016)

Summer is often when animals or pets are abandoned. This is true mainly because during the Summer, the real responsibility of cleaning, walking, and other reasons start to become hard to do thus leaning pet owners to abandon their pet, also during the summer many families go on vacation and decide not to hire a pet sitter therefore another reason to abandon their pet. Because of this about 1.5 animals/pets are being abandoned per hour in the Summer. (Anders, 2016)

Animal Abandonment is also one of the biggest problems in Animal Cruelty because many pounds are overcrowded so there will be no place for abandoned animals when their owners abandon them. This happens because owners are constantly abandoning animals more than there is room for them in shelters, and while doing so the animals are having puppies or kittens in the wild increasing the animal population. The AVMA recommends that when you adopt a pet you should spay the pet so that the pet, if you were to abandon it or if it attempts to have a puppy or kitten then it wouldnt and that would help the to the cause of animal overpopulation which would greatly help animal abandonment. Abandonment could also happen if a pet owner owns too many pets forcing the owner to abandon some of his/her pets. (AVMA, 2018)

Abandonment is a topic worth fighting for, the animals were here before us and they did nothing to us that could greatly affect us in a bigger way than we affected them. Stand up for Animal abandonment and stand up for animal cruelty so that there will be laws against them that will be mandatory everywhere. To stop this, a pet owner should spay their pet, make a lifelong commitment to their pet, and never treat it like anything less than what it is.

Chapter 3: Animal Testing & Overpopulation

Animal Testing is a very cruel way to torture animals as it allows testers to tie up an animal, do tests on the animal regardless of how the animal feels, and the result will be a animal that will no longer be cared for or a dead animal. Testing also allows testers to do anything to the animal before and after the test weather it is discarding it, giving it drugs, or even killing it if the test fails. (PETA, 2018)

Animals In the US that are commonly used in experiments are rats, mice, fish, amphibians, and birds which are not classified as animals in the US allowing companies to test on them legally. Most animals that will eventually be tested on are usually raised for that one experiment when that fully functional animal could have been living a good life in a warm home. Cruelty Free International says,A dog bred for research is still a dog who could otherwise live a happy life in a loving home. (Cruelty Free International, 2018)

There is also surprising news from the FDA that drugs or medications that work on animals mostly do not work on humans. There is about a 8% chance that what does work on animals works on humans, which means that what could work on an animal, by coincidence can work on a human, and by using only this information, we can justify that tests on animals are unnecessary and will not make much of a test if it the test is actioned. Also, a essay from new scientist: How human biology can prevent drug deaths states that about 100,000 people in the US die due to medications or drugs that were tested by animals that worked. (Bekoff, 2018)

The tests that are often performed in laboratories that involved animals often required the animal to suffer or be tortured. There is no law banning this as the society thinks that it is the only way to make sure that humans are not being poisoned, but as mentioned previously, the success rate of a test on an animal versus a human is only 8%, and because of this, animals are not required to suffer for tests that will most likely not have a effect on us. A test on an animal has also caused many deaths in people who tested the product right after the product passed the animal testing, and when they did try the product, they resulted in a negative effect where the human test subjects were either poisoned to death or the test caused a failure of body parts. (Bekoff, 2018)

Overall, when you hear the words: animal testing, you think of a bad thing, and that is exactly what it is. Animal testing does not work and does not prove anything because animal bodies are much different than human bodies, therefore the effect could be anything. Stand up and stop the testing of animals, it has caused many deaths already, weather in humans or in animals. Either way, the testing of animals is bad and overall cruel. This doesnt have to happen and definitely should not happen so stop it, it hurts animals and does not affect us in any kind of major way.

Chapter 4: Dogfighting And Slaughter

Dogfighting is a sport that requires dogs to shed blood even if it is illegal in all 50 states, but it still takes place weather in a closely guarded arena or in a abandoned warehouse. Dogs are commonly bred for dogfights and are often raised in isolation with their tails and ears cut off so that during the fight the dog has lessened senses and so that the opponent cannot rip the parts off to cause a unfair advantage. The dogs are also fed drugs so the fight will be more exciting. A loser in the fight might not be dead in the end but will be when the owner kills the dog and feeds it to the winner, or simply discards it. (ASPCA, 2018)

Dogfighting is a way of showing how much someone could hate dogs and also shows how heartless someone could be. Dogs are often forced to fight for multiple reasons, to gain money, for entertainment, or to make bets or to gamble on the winner. During dogfights, dogs are put into a slightly small arena so that the opponent has nowhere to run. The only breeds of dogs that are used in dogfights are more vicious and more muscular dogs like pitbulls. (ASPCA, 2018)

Dogfighting and slaughter have their differences but also have many similarities like the cruel killing of an animal, the mistreatment of an disabled or perfectly functional animal, and the slaughter of an animal while it is still alive and can still feel pain. Slaughtering can happen to any animal, especially marine animals. Marine animals are killed by the billions each month and most animals in the oceans are becoming endangered from the great whales to the orcas to the bluefin tuna. (10 Animals Killed For Food, 2018) & (Most endangered fish species, 2018)

Slaughter involves a animal that is alive and can still live for time to come. The result of slaughter is a dead body of an animal. Slaughter means to kill an animal for food, mainly in a cruel way where the animal is still alive and can still feel pain. A cruel slaughter subject is the horse who (if the horse is considered useless, or disabled) is shipped to the US to be killed by slaughter. The transfer of these horses are in cramped trucks when the horses are provided with no food or water. The steps of this slaughter is to cut off the horser's hooves, then legs, and finally, to cut off all the hair. The horse is usually still awake or alive when this happens and still will survive until the head is cut off. After this process, the shipment of horses are shipped across seas to another country to be consumed by humans. (ASPCA, 2018)

The slaughter of animals is a cruel way to end a life and can result in extinction, Yet there is no law banning the slaughter of horses in the US, so we have to stand up for slaughter and try to make the law pass. What we could do instead is to have the animal peacefully fall asleep forever and never wake up. This method could potentially stop any species from being tortured, killed slowly or extinct. There are also many other animal species out there that are already endangered and are set for the course of extinction because of slaughter, so if the bill that is to ban the cruel slaughter of animals passes then maybe the next generations will still be seeing animals that we are just barely seeing today.

Chapter 5: Solutions For Cruelty To Animals

There are many solutions out there for animal cruelty but we simply choose to ignore them. There are bills that can be passed, and more conservative thoughts to think about rather that thinking about the fact that you are hungry or bored and need animals just for those reasons. Animals are living things too and deserve rights. We have driven more than a simple million animals to extinction and have overpopulated the earth with domesticated animals. We can stop all of this by simply thinking about what could happen to the future and do things like going meatless once a week, or voting yes for bills that protect animals and stop the torture of animals. There are many problems in our society, especially for the future and for mother earth.

The problem the article is to address is the problem of animal cruelty and animals in general, and here are some simple solutions. When adopting a pet, make a lifelong commitment to it and never give the pet up for re-adoption or abandon it. While adopting your pet you should also try to spay the pet, therefore the population will stay in control and no pets will have to suffer. You can also vote yes on bills or laws that can possibly protect endangered animals and control the amount of overpopulated species so that there will once again be balance in the food chain like there used to be. (Dog and Cat Population Control, 2018)

Many might also think that there is nothing you can do about illegal actions that are still taking place like dogfighting, but you can. In the case of dogfighting, you should call the police to stop the fight and also to stop the breeding of any more dogs for dogfights. If anyone you know is also mistreating their pet then you should tell them why their action is wrong and try to also help the pet that they were mistreating. Any form of animals cruelty should be illegal and should not be committed either way, so help to fight it, and maybe you could become a activist, anything might, and probably will help.

Spread the news of Animal Cruelty and stop any form of it, weather it be helping any animal in need by providing it with food, water, and shelter, or by donating, spreading the word, or, if you can, then try acting upon it by creating a statement, giving a speech about it, or by talking through congress and allowing everybody worldwide to hear your thoughts and think to consider making a change or difference. Change is what we need and we need to start thinking about the future, the earth we live on, and others which includes the animals which were on this planet way before us.

We can do anything if we are devoted to do it, just look how far we got in our society, If we are devoted, then we can stop any problem, if we are devoted, then we can do anything.

So stop the Cruelty to Animals, It is a problem waiting to be solved.

Resources:

1. Anders, C. J. (2016) A Pet Is Abandoned Every Single Hour In The Summer. Retrieved From: https://www.thedodo.com/abandoned-pets-summer-1917692034.html
   ASPCA (2018) Cruelty Issues. Retrieved From: https://www.aspca.org/animal-cruelty
2. AVMA (2018). Dog and Cat Population Control. Retrieved From: https://www.avma.org/KB/Policies/Pages/Dog-And-Cat-Population-Control.aspx
3. Bekoff (2018). Fact! Testing Drugs On Animals Does Not Work to Help Humans. Retrieved From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal- emotions/201212/f a ct-testing-drugs-animals-does-not-work-help-humans
4. Cruelty Free International (2018). What is animal testing? Retrieved From: https://www.crueltyfreeinternational.org/why-we-do-it/what-animal-testing
5. HowStuffWorks (2018). Top 10 Most Endangered Fish Species. Retrieved From: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/endangered-species/top-10-most-endangered-fish.htm
6. Kretzer, M. (2018). Get Ready to Be Inspired by This 11-Year-Old Activist and TEDx Speaker. Retrieved From: https://www.peta.org/blog/genesis-butler-young-hero-for-animals-award/
7. Newshub (2018). Teenage girl is dogs' best friend. Retrieved From: https://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/teenage-girl-is-dogs-best-friend-2013080912
8. PETA (2018). Cruelty to Animals in Laboratories. Retrieved From: https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/animals-laboratories/
9. The Pollination Project (2018). Meet our 100th Grantee: Thomas Ponce, Founder of Lobby for Animals. Retrieved From: https://thepollinationproject.org /2013/04/15/meet- our-10 0t h-grantee-thomas-ponce-founder-of-lobby-for-animals/
10. Vegan Souls (2018). Top 10 Animals Killed for Food Worldwide Each Year. Retrieved From: https://www.vegansouls.com/animals-killed-for-food

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