There are over seventy million cats and fifty-five million dogs in the United States, yet the number of reported cases of neglect, or abuse is severely lacking (Davidson 1).
Animal abuse is an ongoing dilemma in this country; recent studies have indicated child animal cruelty offenders often go on to pursue disturbing acts of criminal behavior. This nation simply does not have standardized legislation across the nation as a preventative method of dealing with this predicament. Many states treat animal abuse too leniently, and this is bad because youthful offenders often times will go on to perform criminal acts later in life, therefore anti-youth violence organizations and animal abuse prevention organizations need to join forces in order to enhance existing laws and to better educate America’s youth. It was not until recently people were first beginning to discover that animals do indeed have rights.
Brief History:
It was not until 1966 that the nation finally realized these kind creatures could in fact feel pain and neglect, when the Animal Welfare Act was finally passed. According to Congress’s Public Law 89-544 Act of August 24, 1966, the use of animals in lab tests, the transportation, sale, and handling of dogs, cats and certain other animals is now regulated by the Secretary of Agriculture (1).
Sample State Animal Cruelty Laws:
Nevada: Recently it has become mandatory for Nevada juvenile court systems to obtain some form of psychological treatment for animal cruelty offenders (“States Look at Stricter Laws” 1). This is great news for the state of Nevada; unfortunately this mandatory regulation does not exist in all states.
Idaho and Illinois: According to Howard Davidson, director of the ABA center ...
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...t Stricter Animal Cruelty Laws." State Legislatures 27.4 (2001): 8pp. 1 Mar. 2006 .
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"State Animal Anti-Cruelty Law Provisions." The Humane Society of the United States. 2005. 28 Feb. 2006. .
"The Link between Animal Cruelty and Child Maltreatment." APA Center on Children and the Law (June 1998). 25 Feb. 2006 .
United States Congress. 89th Congress, H.R. 13881 An Act. Public Law 89-544 11 of August 24, 1996. June 1998. 20 Feb. 2006 .
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United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library. Animal Welfare Act. 8 April 2014. 14 April 2014.
...ted States. Department of Agriculture. Animal Care Blue Book. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Animal Welfare Act and Animal Welfare Regulations. United States Department of Agriculture. Web. 23 Dec. 2013. .
Ascione’s (1993) definition of animal cruelty is defined as “socially unacceptable behavior that intentionally causes unnecessary pain, suffering, or distress to and/or death of an animal” exclusive of socially condoned behavior, such as legal hunting and certain agricultural and veterinary practices. Not all violent individuals have been previously cruel to animals but studies have shown that a great number of them have exhibited this behavior. A great majority of the literature calls for a better understandin...
The lack of awareness programs attributes to animal hoarding greatly. The Robinson Rescue is an organization that “educate[s] pet owners about the importance of spay/neuter as a means of ending pet overpopulation.” ( ). This organization shows children how they should think of animals so that they do not abuse their animals like a case in which the defendants argued “that pets are classified as personal property…” and that they have feelings too (Donaghey 2011) (Gunnarson). Few people realize that 354 animals are eutha...
PETA states that, since before the 1920’s there has been animal experimentation. Not until President Lyndon Johnson signed the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act (LAWA) in 1966, animals in the United States had no protection in laboratories, circuses, and zoos over breeding, transportation, housing, feeding, and veterinary care. The LAWA is now called the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). (Williams, and DeMello)
On the other hand, just as there are laws there are many weak laws that have been enforced to protect animals from cruelty. As a matter of fact not only are the laws weak, but they are also rarely enforced. The reason being is because police officers and public presecutors frequently view animal cru...
Animals are used today for many sources of protection, food, clothing, transportation, sports, entertainment, and labor, but millions of these animals die each year from abuse. “Most of the reasons that people give for denying animals rights are: animals do not have souls, god gave humans dominion over the animals, humans are intellectually superior to animals, humans are intellectually superior to animals, animals do not reason, think, or feel pain like humans do, animals are a natural resource to used as humans see fit, and animals kill each other” (Evans). It all started in the nineteenth century, when people began abusing animals by beating them, feeding them poorly, providing them with no shelter or poor shelter, left to die if they were sick or old, or by cruel sports. Most of the organized efforts to improve human treatment of animals all started in England. Around the 1800s, there was signs of rising concern for animal welfare in the United States.
United States. House of Representatives. Committee on Agriculture. “Puppy Protection Act.” Thomas Library of Congress. Government Publication Office. 11 Oct. 2001. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.
Animal cruelty is a rapidly growing nationwide problem. Animals are being battered and starved everyday. There are many forms of animal cruelty; some forms are scientific research, abandonment, and mistreatment.
Seeing maimed animals are not pleasant images. Those images sometimes appear across computer and television screens. The advocacy groups who place these images in the public’s view are trying to jolt people into the realization that abuse exists. For every ten seconds that goes by an animal is getting abused (“Animal… Statistics”). One statistic states that “71% of pet-owning women entering women’s shelters reported that their batterer had injured, maimed, killed or threatened family pets for revenge or to psychologically control victims; 32% reported their children had hurt or killed animals” (“Animal… Violence”). Animal cruelty comes in several forms, some of which people do not know. There is animal experimenting, animal abuse, and mistreatment of animals. and through revealing the results from research, one discovers the horrific effects of animal abuse.
Executive Summary Every 60 seconds, an animal is abused. Dogs, cats, horses, and many other types of animals are being neglected and tortured everyday, yet resulting in few and minor consequences for the perpetrators. Animal abuse is prevalent in the United States and has been an ongoing issue since the 1970's, and prior to. Society as a whole has chosen to avoid the facts and arguments about animal cruelty, because to some it is seen as acceptable and typical. It becomes much more frowned upon when people actually see the results of the cruelty, especially in the media.
Johnson. It is the only Federal Law in the United States that regulates the treatment of animals in research and exhibition. This act requires all animal dealers to be registered and licensed, and if they break any of the provisions of the Animal Welfare Act, they will be fined $1,000. The act was amended eight times (1970, 1976, 1985, 1990, 2002, 2007, 2008, and 2013). All these different times that it was amended, more and more animals were brought justice and helped from being mistreated and poorly taken care of. August 31, 2015, the announcement of the Federal tracking of cruelty crimes changes, have brought forth new statistics of animal abuse. 64.5% (1,212) of the crimes were dog related, 18% (337) were cats, and 25% (470) were other animals. Just about one million animals are abused or killed yearly in the U.S., and if caught are fined under the Animal Welfare Act of 1966. The Animal Welfare Act has granted lab research and use of animals, it regulates care and the use of animals in research, but excludes cold-blooded animals, and limited protection on other animals such as mice, rats, and birds bred for research. Conservative estimates indicate that over 25 million animals are used annually for animal research. The U.S.D.A is in charge of enforcing the AWA (Animal Welfare Act). The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Animal Care program administers
The Animal Welfare act was created in 1996 and it 's main purpose was to establish a licensing system for animal dealers and laboratories that use dogs, cats, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, or non-human primates. This was also done in Great Britain in the 1960 's which was used to calm the debate of using animals in science. This act is the only federal law in the United States that is regulating the treatment of animals in research. Some say that this isn 't enough to protect the animals in testing labs. David Favre states that, "This is a federal law of limited purpose and scope." He goes on to say that, it does not deal with all species of animals, as do most state anti-cruelty laws. Instead, the law focuses upon several very specific activities that have been shown in the past to be potential areas of animal abuse and that have a nationwide aspect to them (Favre,
Animal abuse is a travesty in our world that must be stopped. Every year, millions of animals suffer because of human actions, directly or indirectly. Whether it’s abused dogs and cats or even mistreated circus animals, their suffering is as real as it would be if it happened to us. Even animals who are raised on farms simply for human consumption should not have to suffer. One of the worst parts of humanity’s role in animal abuse is that there are easy ways for people to help that they are either ignorant of or simply refuse to do. There are many examples of animals who are abused by humans, but there are also ways for people to help prevent and put an end to animal abuse.
Before discussion of public awareness and sensitivity vis-à-vis animal rights, it is prudent to provide a concise history of the topic in America. In 1866, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was formed. Some of the early triumphs associated with organization are lobbying for the passing of anti-cruelty laws for animals used in gambling, such as bull and cock fights as well as horse beating (“American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals”). By 1908, there were 185 anticruelty organizations promoting and stimulating public awareness of humane treatment of animals (Pearson 3-4). Early nineteenth century anticruelty reformers maintained that abuse of children and animals would affect the “character and habits that...