Dear Mr./Mrs. President,

There are millions of animals not getting the proper treatment they need in order to live a full and happy life. Many people regard animals as property that they can own and treat however they want just because they “bought” them. Just because you paid for an animal doesn’t make it yours and it doesn’t make it right for you to treat them poorly. If you had a child, just because they are your son/daughter does that mean that you can harm them without a punishment? That is what some people are doing to their animals. I believe that there needs to be stricter laws to protect animals from being treated poorly.

Animal testing is something that I didn’t think much of for a long time. Now that I know more about it, I know that it is a big issue, and that we need to pay a lot more attention to it. As stated in an article from a NCBI government cite, a terrible incident in 1937 took many people’s lives. A pharmacist unknowingly made a medicine that was poisonous to humans, there was no animal testing done. This was a catastrophe and cost many people their lives. This situation could have benefited from animal testing, and back then there wasn’t the technology that we have now. There must be a way to test medicine without harming any animals or humans. According to dosomething.org there are over 100 million animals being extremely harmed in the US each year! That is an outrageous amount and I believe that we need to make this number go down. Also, 92% of these tests fail in humans where they were effective on animals. If animal testing often isn’t reliable why are we still doing it?

Along with animal testing a lot of people still participate in dogfighting. This is a sick thing to do to these poor dogs. These dogs are trained to be fighters and if they were treated right they could have had a wonderful life with a family who loves them. Instead they have to endure getting their ears cropped and tail docked by their owner. The ASPCA states that dogfighting is illegal in all 50 states. These dogs are raised in isolation and are forced to take drugs to enhance their muscle mass. Dogs do not want to fight, they will get injured and will suffer the consequences of the life their owner gave them and will most likely die a cruel horrible death. These fights can last hours and dogs will suffer injuries such as puncture wounds, lacerations, blood loss, crushing injuries and broken bones. I just can’t imagine someone wanting any animal to get these injuries and actually enjoy watching the animal suffer. Treatment like this does not only happen to dogs but so many other animals, any animal you can think of somewhere in the world someone is treating it terribly.

There are two views regarding animal welfare according to EDSAW. One view is that animals are not consciously aware so they can’t feel if they are being treated badly. The other view is that animals can not be treated as property. I believe that some animals enjoy being taken care of if they are being treated correctly. There are many motivations for people to want to improve the welfare of animals. Some motivations include sympathy, empathy, utility, inherited traits and cultural factors. These motivations are from people who truly care about the wellbeing of animals. Some other motivations are for self-interest. For example, some animal producers would like to improve the welfare of their animals just to meet customer demands. This is an example of someone who just cares about making money and not their animals. Also according to this article, there are 5 freedoms that animals deserve. These are, freedom from discomfort, pain, injury, disease, to express most normal behavior, freedom from hunger and thirst, and from fear and distress. If they have all five of these things they will have a happy life and that is what we all want for our animals.

Pets and animals have done so much for humans. There are stories about animals saving humans lives, for example, dogs saving families from wolves, dolphins saving a surfer from a shark, etc. Animals help humans in so many ways whether it’s protecting you from something or even just cuddling on the couch with you when you’re having a bad day. They are just there to help. Humans on the other hand will abuse animals, neglect them and just treat them horribly. We also put negative labels on certain animals while we praise others. Why do some humans treat animals so poorly when all they want to do is help.

This problem needs to be fixed because some animals are suffering. That is no way any person wants to live so why would we want an animal want to live that way. This is a big problem that a lot of people don’t care about. Many people think that since their pet is loved every pet or animal is loved too. That is not the case. This needs to be a bigger subject so more people know about it. This problem needs to be solved. We need to create stricter laws punishing people who abuse animals. Pet stores and animal rescues need to know who has a history with abusing animals and they should not allow these people to adopt their animals. There also has to be stricter regulations for animal testing, if we can not ban it altogether. With all of the advanced technology that we have there has to be a way to test medicine and cosmetics without testing it on animals. If it is not banned there needs to be regulations so that the animals are not in danger while they are being tested on. Animals need to be treated with the same care that we would want a child to be treated. For most people their pets are just an extension of their family anyway, so all animals should be treated with that same love.

Sincerely Annabel Z.