Dear President,

I am writing to address the animal abuse and misuse of animals in the United States. Each year over two million adoptable dogs and cats get euthanized each year due to pet overpopulation all over America. Furthermore, 100 million are murdered a year from animal testing, this includes animals of all species.

To begin, the overpopulation of stray animals is abnormally high. According to American Humane and Animal Shelter, the best way to stop the overpopulation and crowding of shelters is to ¨always spay and neuter your pets” and to “always adopt your pets from a legitimate shelter or nonprofit rescue group¨. The procedure costs 50-100$ all together at a vets office. Nevertheless, many shelters offer a discount, or accomplish the surgery before the animal is put up for adoption. Some may argue that the cost is too much, although it seems like a lot of money, someone who can not afford this most likely could not afford an animal and all of its other expenses and needs like yearly shots, vet check ups, and food. Another way to reduce overcrowding of pets is to encourage people to adopt from shelters and reduce breeder’s pet sales. Animal breeders mate a variety of different animals to make an income. They claim to their buyers that their animal comes from a purebred and is the best. Even though shelter dogs are a lot cheaper, many still insists that they need a ¨purebred¨ dog. I can see how one would argue wanting to know 100% what type of breed their dog is, and it’s mother and father's breed. What some fail to realize is that there are some purebred puppies and dogs in shelters, although they are difficult to find. There are also tests to run to know for sure the breed. There is no real logical reasoning for needing a purebred, expensive dog, yet some still insist.

Moving on, new scientific research and discoveries are an important part of life today. But to accomplish that many labs will unjustifiably do tests on a variety of animals. There is only one law to protect the animals used for testing in the US, that being the Animal Welfare Act. It is supposed to regulate the treatment of animals in captivity for research, but severely fails to do so. According to PETA 92/100 drugs that pass in animal testing fail miserably in human testing. If it ultimately hurts humans there is no point of traumatizing or killing innocent animals. However, researchers justify this inexcusable treatment toward animals, with the advancements it can make in the medical field. In contrast, what about the 8 drugs that do pass animal and human trial? They are many different ways to run tests before they are eligible by human trial. This includes vitro testing, which is an alternative for animal testing. These “organs in chips” better predict human reaction towards a drug by mimicking human organs and put no living thing through merciless torture.

Finally animals, such as cows and chickens are treated cruelly in factory farming. Factory farming is an insensitive way of raising and slaughtering animals in the cheapest, easiest way. These helpless animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy, dark shacks. Most of these animals have never been outside or experienced what is considered normal for their species. All of this in hope a company can produce more meat faster and easier, but at what cost? These animals face cruel beatings and infectious diseases from being stuck in grimy cages their entire life, and if they survive they are killed in inhumane ways, for instance, a simple slice to the throat to end their life. This can be changed by increasing prices of meat to insure all animals are raised with more living space and having enforced regulations for meat companies to slaughter animals in specific more humane ways.

In Conclusion, I strongly encourage you to take these facts into consideration. These different types of abuse must stop, not only is it morally wrong, but it leads to no positive outcome. Truthfully, nothing living or with feelings should have to be put through this. I hope that change can occur and people can learn to respect animals like they respect people.

Sincerely,

Mandy Iwankovitsch

Work Cited

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/pet_overpopulation/?referrer=https://www.google.com/

http://www.americanhumane.org/position-statement/animal-population-control/

http://www.peta.org/blog/top-five-reasons-stop-animal-testing/