Jan P. California

Animal Abuse and Cruelty

Domestic animals go through so much abuse everyday throughout the country.

Dear Future President, 

Throughout the country, there is a large number of animals and pets going through daily abuse from their owners.  I have a pet dog at home. This dog was not always living with me. My family and I found him walking out in the streets about two years ago and decided to adopt him. However, my new dog was always scared of playing with balls and playing fetch. We weren't able to play traditional games with him in the park and is scared of loud noises and fast moving objects. Normal dogs would love playing fetch or playing with toys, but my new dog isn't. I fear that his previous owner used to abuse him before he ran away and we decided to take him in.

Since my new dog was most likely once a victim of animal abuse, I can't help but wonder how many other dogs or other pets go or went through animal abuse everyday. In 2011 in the US, there were 1,423 cases of animal cruelty. This is only the reported cases, there are many more cases that were not reported. According to the Humane Society of the United States, 70.1% of those cases were dogs, for example pitting dogs to fight each other, 20.9% of the cases were cats, and 24.1% of the cases being other animals like horses and livestock. Livestock cases of animal cruelty included cockfighting.

There are over 1,000 cases of animal cruelty in the US in 2011 alone. That is too many cases of animal cruelty to be considered acceptable in any way. Animal abuse of dogs is one of the main reasons that dogs attack people. According to peta, chained dogs suffer from psychological, emotional, and behavioral effects. Dogs are pack animals, and due to being domesticated, they no longer run around in the wild with other dogs so they no make the family that owns them their pack. Chaining a dog can prevent it from socializing with other dogs or the people that are part of its 'pack.' This can cause a dog to become much more territorial and will feel intimidated when someone intrudes on their territory enticing them to attack said person as a reaction to protect one's territory.

So please do try putting an end to animal cruelty will solve a lot of problems. It will help pets that are meant to be our trusted companions and keep future generations of dogs, cats and other animals safe from the pain of abuse from their future owners. It will prevent future attacks from dogs resulting in less dogs being required to be put down. 

PETA, a large association that is against animal cruelty have made many steps towards ending it. One of those including creating fundraisers for charities that try to end animal cruelty which also includes organizations that help animals that were previously abused by their owners thus lowering animal abuse. Another one of their solutions would be for people to donate their bodies after dying so that scientists can use said body to test their products rather than on live unsuspecting animals. The government should also lower the budget of animal testing from $16 billion dollars to less than half of that if not none. This can stop all animal testing and save countless animals from a life of captivity and testing.

From, 

Jan Adlawan

John Henry Francis Polytechnic High School

Honors English 10 B / Period 3

Sophomore English class in the magnet program of John H. Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, California.

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