Dear Future President:

Do you have a pet at home that you love very deeply? Would you ever think of hurting them or causing them any harm? There are many people in the world that don't think twice before abusing and potentially killing their own pet. Dogs, cats, horses, etc. They are abused and killed dramatically every year and we need to stop it.

On average, about 7.3 million cats and dogs die from abuse or other human related purposes per year. According to ASPCA, “3.9 millions dogs and 3.4 cats are abused per year and 1.2 million dogs and 1.4 cats die per year.” An animal equality website states, “56 billion farm animals are killed every year by humans.” In the United States, animal cruelty can be charged as either a misdemeanor or felony and can be fined $1,000 and/or imprisonment up to one year. Intentionally and cruelly torturing or injuring an animal can be charged as a felony with a fine of up to $5,000 and/or imprisonment up to five years. Sadly there are many different types of animal abuse, there is dog fighting, puppy mills, animal hoarding, horse- slaughter, and many more. For example, the website ASPCA explains that, ”Animal hoarding occurs when an individual is housing more animals than he or she can adequately care for… Animal hoarding is defined by an inability to provide even minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, shelter and veterinary care—often resulting in animal starvation, illness and death. In the majority of cases, animal hoarders believe they are helping their animals and deny this inability to provide minimum care.” Most people who abuse animals don't mean to do it on purpose. Some people hurt animals because they don't realize what they are doing. Many of these people don't think that what they are doing is cruel. For example, some people don't realize what kinds of shelter and care different types of animals need. Some people are forgetful and/or don’t care enough to pay enough attention. Others think it’s fun to hurt or abuse animals. Others buy some many animals and they can’t take care of them, so they just let their water go bad, let their food rot, and their crates or litter boxes get all dirty and are never cleaned. Some people just abuse their animals for discipline or to calm their animals down but they don’t realize that it’s cruel.

We must to put a stop to all of the innocent animals that are suffering and don't know what it's like to be loved and cared for. Animals are like humans, they can suffer and feel pain just like humans can. To me animal cruelty is horrible, animals are helpless and they can't call out in pain or ask for help. Animals trust us with their whole life, they are loyal and they protect us so why do we hurt our them? Hurting an animal will cause other animals around and that animal to act out viciously to other animals and people. In the U.S. there’s a law prohibiting cruelty to animals, by making charges for animal cruelty. Lawmakers hope that these laws can stop all sorts of violent acts, especially those toward animals. According to Avvo Stories, “The FBI has known for a few decades that animal abuse has a strong link to violence against other humans. Consider these examples of this association: Patrick Sherrill killed 14 coworkers before shooting himself, he had a deep history of dog fighting, Jeffrey Dahmer was a serial killer who also impaled dogs, cats, and other animals, and lastly Carroll Edward Cole was accused of committing 35 murders, he said his first acts of violence was strangling a puppy when he was a kid. The list could go on and on, but you get the point. Animal abuse is one of the most common precursors to much harsher violence against people.The idea of giving animal abusers a tougher sentence isn’t so much about protecting the animals as it is about protecting human life and preventing domestic violence. It’s an issue of trying to rehabilitate animal abusers to keep them from committing similar or worse crimes down the road.” The punishment of animal abuse should be more harsh than they are now because unpunished animal abuse leads to violent acts on people.

A good way to prevent animal abuse, Mr. President, would be if there were more protests and organizations against it and even a rehab to help the abusers to realize it's wrong. People need to more about this subject, it's a worldwide problem and needs to end. There could also more strict laws for animal abuse, like more jail time instead of just a fine. Any animal abuser could abuse an animal, pay the fine, and then return to their old ways, but they wouldn't do it again if they had to go to jail and do time for their crime.

Sincerely,

Sydney Bruns