Animal Cruelty

 Animal cruelty

Animal cruelty encompasses a range of behaviours harmful to animals, neglect to malicious killing. Intentional cruelty can run the gamut from knowingly depriving an animal of food, water, shelter, socialization or veterinary care to maliciously torturing, maiming, multilating or killing an animal.

Types of Animal Cruelty

Animal Neglect:

Experts divide the forms of animal cruelty into two categories:

Passive and active

Negligence is classified as a passive form of animal abuse. It means that lack of proper action also matters. If a pet suffers from dehydration, starvation, parasite infestation, lives in unsuitable weather conditions or else, it is considered as animal abuse. The pet owner should be educated in order to provide welfare to their animal companion.

Domestic Animal Abuse:

Because domestic violence is often motivated by the desire for domination and power, it often goes hand in hand with animal abuse. 

Experts are adamant that domestic violence is most common background for animal cruelty in children. The importance of this statement can't be overestimated, as nearly 32% of all domestic animal cruelty cases were committed by children. 

Farm Animal Abuse:

Industrial farming is considered a form of animal abuse mainly due to the fact the animals there live and die in horrible suffering. Although many manufacturers argue that it is impossible to transport and slaughter a huge amount of animals in a "humane manner", animal rights activists demand changes in this department.

Did you know that broiler chickens are fed with steroids to grow faster, but the growth happens so fast that their heart, lungs, or bones often cannot keep up?

One in a hundred chickens dies because of the steroids dosages.

Farm animals are forced to the undergo dozens of painful, invasive procedures, such as castration, branding, tongue resection, dehorning, ear tagging, dubbing (removing comb, earlobes, and wattles of poultry), beak trimming, tail docking, etc.

Cultural Rituals:

Unfortunately, in some Asian countries, people capture elephants and use different cruel methods to "break the elephant's spirit", including starvation, sleep deprivation, dehydration, driving nails into the areas and feet.

In some cultures, people continue to perform sacrificial rituals for healing or spirit's blessing.

TV and Film Industry:

When you see a cute dog or maybe a wild animal on the screen, think about how they were tamed and trained, as well as in what conditions they were kept. In case you didn't know, even some of the biggest budget films had multiple precedents of maltreatment and even killed animals during the production.

Circus Animal Abuse:

There are hundreds of documentations reporting animal cruelty not only during the training process, but also in matters of caging, feeding, veterinary care, etc.

Nowadays, some circuses present animal-free performances. The world's first ban on animals in all circuses has been enacted in Bolivia.

Unnecessary Laboratory Experiments, Demonstrations and Tests:

It's true that we wouldn't have many life-saving remedies without the experiments on animals.

However, most such activities can surely be classified as animal abuse due to the shift in ethical standards and development of technologies. According to different scientists, experiments on dogs, rabbits, mice and other animals are almost never necessary, because the specialists have human organs-on-chips to model diseases and even test drugs.

 Most Horrible Types of Animal Abuse

Dogfighting, dog racing, fur farms, puppy mills and other extremely violent forms of animal cruelty simply destroy the faith in humanity. Whether it is for entertainment or money, we believe that people who organize such activities or operate the business should receive maximum punishment.

Killing dogs and cats to sell fake fur coats, killing dogs because they aren't fast enough, force two dogs to fight for their lives through the use of drugs.....this is just absolutely not normal.

How to Recognise Animal Cruelty

There are many abused animals around you, so it is important to recognise them to be able to provide help us soon as possible.

Here are some important signs of animal cruelty:

• Noticable trauma or poor body condition;
• Signs of starvation or dehydration;
• Signs of the animal being homeless or abandoned;
• Lack of sanitation in the animal's living area;
• Tied or caged animal;
• Evidence of the animal being trained to fight;
• Too many animals living in one house or on one property.

Animals are also living beings as we humans are. They also have rights to live their lives. The described types of animal abuse showcase the true reality of the world we're living in. And although things are getting better, we must not stop striving to change into a better place. Different organisations like PETA continue their hard work to prevent animal abuse across the world, and you yourself can help them!