Animal Cruelty
“Maggie barely survived the harsh winters of tiny Alaska Zoo. Confined many days to a cramped, indoor pen, she developed crippling foot and joint disease, collapsing to the floor- lifted only by a crane. Zookeepers conceded that frigid Anchorage was no place for a 4-ton tropical beast.” (Berens, Michael J. Glamour Beasts: Elephant Havens). For every elephant born in the U.S. zoo, on average two others die. Imagine a person was Maggie, barely surviving the harsh, confined many days cramped in an indoor pen, and then developing a joint disease. Terrible. Treating animals differently with violence and neglect is a crime. Animal abuse is a problem that needs attention because it’s ignored and it’s becoming a bigger problem over the years. The problem of abuse can be solved in a few ways: creating or making laws stricter, recognizing signs, and reporting abuse.
Animal abuse is an act of putting an animal in poor conditions to a point where the animal cannot sustain life happily. Animal abuse is happening everywhere all the time. Abuse has been going on for a long time, it never stops. “Act of violence towards humans sometimes is first practiced on animals.”(The National Humane). Psychotic disturbances like extreme emotional and psychological traumas. “The “Cycle of Violence”: Children of violent homes often experience or witness sexual, domestic, or animal abuse and typically experience a combination of these. A significant percentage of child abuse victims go on to become violent abusers themselves.”(The National Humane). Not only can people have psychological traumas but animal abuse has been found to be a part of religious and beliefs. “Various cultural and religious beliefs can directly influence what is considered acceptable treatment of animals. For example, dog-fighting and cock-fighting are often significantly influenced by culture and tradition.” (The National Humane). These practices or beliefs may be religious but they are also a crime. The connection between human violence and animal’s cruelty was not noticed until recently. We still have week laws and punishments related to animal abuse and neglect. With the week laws and very low standards for punishments. People start to take that for granted. The assume that there may be no punishment at all and so they start to practice animal abuse or still continue to practice animal abuse.” This lack of justice gives the impression that animals are worth little, if anything.” (The National Humane).
“Annie spent much of her life in chains at the Milwaukee County Zoo until the public learned of brutal training sessions. Zookeepers routinely anchored the elephant’s feet with chains, then struck and gouged her with a bullhook, even videotaping sessions to teach others how to make an elephant perform on command.” ((Berens, Michael J. Glamour Beasts: Elephant Havens). These practices on elephants to make them do commands is awful and is very much considered abuse. Ruthless abuse and neglect to these animals is not fair. If humans had to live in these conditions we would die or hardly survive. Animals get put in conditions that are very different from the wild. These conditions cause not just elephants but other animals start to have symptoms; swaying back and forth while standing still, rocking there head while standing still, and shuffling there feet for hours. These behaviors can’t be found in the wild. Clearly these animals are being affect by being confined in pens and chained down. Then these animals start to begin to get arthritic legs and joint diseases. “The four elephants shared an 8-by-18-foot south room and a 20-by-42 north room. Conditions were so cramped that they were chained at night so they wouldn’t accidentally roll over each other.” Berens, Michael J. Glamour Beasts: Elephants Are). Even household pets get abused. People believe that they are taking care of their pet but they are really only hurting him/her. People aren’t taught how to