Animal Cruelty Essay

Animal Cruelty
Every year, the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) takes in close to 50,000 reports of animal mistreatment in Australia and about 150,000 in England and in Wales (RSPCA, 2013). However, these figures do not include the cases when mistreatment is not reported which, according to the RSPCA, happens almost as often as the ones recorded (RSPCA, 2013). Maltreatment occurs when an animal is tormented or harmed, imprisoned or transported from one place to another in a manner that risks their well-being and health. Killing them in a non-humane way, not providing them with the correct food, not taking care of them or the illness and injuries they may have, and not providing them with proper shelter or adequate living circumstances are also forms of cruelty. In 2013 the RSPCA investigated 4,000 more cases in Australia than in the previous year; statistics also show that in the United Kingdom, on average, every thirty seconds someone dials the Organization’s 24-hour cruelty line seeking for help (RSPCA, 2013). This indicates that animal mistreatment is a growing issue that has effects not only on the victims, but also on the perpetrator, the people involved in rescuing and saving the animals’ life, and every other individual that gets touched by their stories. Thus, considering that abusing animals is against our moral and ethical obligation of protecting our planet and the forms of life in it, including animal life, it is an issue that is happening considerably often. However, thankfully for the animals, there are also organizations and laws opposing and fighting against animal cruelty to save the victims and to put an end to it. Global organizations such as the RSPCA, ALDF, PETA, WSPA, among other...

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...ncts instruct people that harming animals is immoral and unethical; however, it is not immoral or unethical because of the inherent sense of rights that an animal should have or even because inflicting pain or killing is by some means ethically wrong, but because of the influences and impacts that these habits have on the nature of our ethical sensibilities. The abuse of animals supported by humans is ethically wrong because of the malformations it causes in our ethical culture. The acts and ethical concepts that people is part of and that they witness, affect the outlines of their moral evolution, and therefore, it affects humanity as a whole. The only possible way to fulfil our instinctual obligations and to maintain our moral and ethical concepts is through proper behaviour, which should include the respect and recognition of all living beings treated equally.