Dear future President,

 I have always been a huge animal lover for my whole life, and I would love to work with animals when I grow up. I love any animal, no matter the kind, shape or size. So this has been a topic that has bothered, and annoyed me, my whole life. The topic is animal cruelty for profit and entertainment. To me, animals should be treated with the same respect as humans. They are living things too. It’s really as simple as that, so it’s extremely scary to think a human is treating any animal with disrespect. And I’m not talking about hunting or anything like that, I’m talking about hurting or neglecting an animal, inflicting pain on the animal so you can feel better, or for profit and entertainment. Imagine one of your pets being abused or neglected for profit or entertainment. I would like to stop this right now, and I want the future president to be on board with me.

The first thing I have to start with is dog fighting. This is a serious problem, and too many dogs have been abused and hurt for this. According to the Humane Society of the United States 71% of people that have committed a domestic violence felony have had past records of abusing their pets. And 70.1% of animal cruelty involved dogs. This is not a good number for animal abuse, especially since dogs are the most common household pets. So dog fighting is just a form of animal abuse for entertainment with the animal that already has the most abuse records. 

Dog fighting starts with dogs spending most of their lives on short heavy chains in isolation. Also, the people involved give the dogs pills in their food that makes them have more muscle mass for a “good fight." The most common fighting dog is the pitbull. This is a very strong dog already, but even stronger when it is trained to fight. Injuries from this dog are usually severe bruising, deep puncture wounds, and even broken bones. Dog deaths are usually from blood loss, shock, dehydration, exhaustion, and infections after the fight. 

I am personally a big fan of football, so to hear that Michael Vick was involved in dog fighting, it completely changed how I saw him because even though he was a great player, anyone who can participate in this type of cruelty is a horrible person in my eyes. Dog fighting is found in all 50 states of the country, that is 50 too many, especially since in all states it is a felony. I think the best way for the president to put an end to dog fighting is just to educate people about the issue, and get people involved around the areas of the most common fight destinations.

My next topic is puppy mills. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or the ASPCA says there are an estimated 10,000 puppy mills around the country. Puppy mills are breeding facilities where profit is placed above the well-being of the animals. The health of the animals is definitely not a priority to these “commercial dog-breeding companies.” An example of an animal’s bad health would be female dogs having continuous litters of puppies without a break or rest between litters. This is extremely unhealthy for the females, and the puppies. After a while, when the female has gotten older or sickly from the births, she is usually killed because she has no use to the puppy mill anymore. And while puppies are at the mills, conditions are horrible; cramped cages, water and food that is contaminated by bugs are normal sights at the mills. This leads to puppies not being able to play or exercise ever. 

According to DoSomething.org, every year about three million puppies are killed because of overly crowded cages, and not enough of them being adopted in shelters. I think a way to put a stop to this would be to train puppies that are actually needed in some places like farms, or a bigger amount of dogs for the police and army along with giving them to more people that need help that don’t know how to reach out for a service dog.

This is a big topic for me and I need for someone to stop what’s currently happening in the world. Animal cruelty in general should not be taken lightly, especially not for profit and entertainment. It would be perfect if the future president could put a stop to this now.

Sincerely, Jonah Z.

Sources Used:

"11 Facts About Puppy Mills."  DoSomething.org.  DoSomething.org.  n.d.  Web.  16 Nov. 2016.

“Animal Cruelty Facts and Stats."  The Humane Society of the United States.  The Humane Society of the United States.  n.d.  Web.  16 Nov. 2016.

"Dogfighting Facts Sheet."  AnimalLiberationFront.com.  AnimalLiberationFront.com.  n.d.  Web.  16 Nov. 2016.

"Puppy Mills." American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. ASPCA. n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.