Animal Cruelty

Animal Cruelty

Animal cruelty is divided into two forms. The first one, which is neglect, is where the animal is not provided with basic needs as well as necessary care. It is also referred to as passive or cruelty of omission. As a result, the neglected animal suffers from dehydration, poor shelter, starvation, parasite infestation and other difficulties (Arluke 196). The other form of animal cruelty is intentional cruelty. This involves causing deliberate physical harm or even injury to the animal. Beatings, burning, poisoning and stabbing of animals are categorized under intentional cruelty. All these are also known as non accidental injury or active cruelty (Arluke 196). Various factors lead humans into practicing animal cruelty. An animal may be subjected to cruelty in cases where it is used for making commercial profit. These include dog and cock fighting. In other cases, animals are used for experimentation. Animal cruelty may also occur in the course of training the animals. Lastly, as ironical as it may sound, there are also those who find pleasure in torturing animals for no apparent reason (Agnew 179). What is even more disheartening is to know that all these acts are happening even at this moment. Whatever the reason is put behind animal cruelty, the act is simply wrong.

To begin with, any form of cruelty directed at any creature, not only an animal is very unfair. In the case of animals and children, the innocent creatures are unable to defend themselves or even ask for help. In fact, those who abuse animals can be described as cowards. They do it because the creature is helpless (Arluke & Clinton 34). Another thing is that we are in an era where in many countries; various species of animals are faced with extinction. In fact, it is approximated that by the year 2022, 22 per cent of all existing species will have died out, if no action is taken (Arluke & Clinton 37). Most of these animals are an attraction to tourists and thus are a major contribution towards growth of economies. As such, relevant authorities are doing everything within their capability to save the animals. Therefore, animal abusers are only serving to aggravate a situation that is already in its worst (Arluke & Clinton 38). Closely related to this is the fact that killing animals may lead to an imbalance in the ecosystem. We all live in an environment where we depend on each other. Killing some members of the ecosystem may see some animals starve to death while others may grow out of control in population (Arluke & Clinton 40).

Another point is that abusing animals amounts to selfishness. Some individuals proceed to cause physical harm or neglect animals even when they know so well that they would not wish the same to happen to them. In addition, animals also have a life. They are not less of a creature than humans and thus feel pain as much as humans do. All these show the level of selfishness in those who are cruel towards animals (Shapiro et al 115).

There have also been found a link between animal cruelty and violence towards humans. Research has shown that abusers of animals hardly stop there; they proceed to practice the same on human beings. Further, animal cruelty has been found to be an indicator of a minor personality flaw. This implies that such