Animal Cruelty Is An Ethical And Moral Issue Essay

Animal Cruelty is a subject that spreads far across the United States and into most civilized cultures. Animal cruelty can either be in the form of intentional abuse, simple neglect, or abandonment of animals.  Whatever forms the abuse takes, however, the animal that is the victim of the abuse is often helpless and may experience extreme suffering. Animal right activist feel if you don’t know how to take care or treat an animal it can be as deadly as physical abuse to care for one.

Over the years that animals have been used for entertainment purposes, in most cases it was likely to engage the audience to learn about a specific animal and help grow love and care for that animal. Today, animals are seen doing show stopping tricks whether it be on TV, in circuses, or in theme parks. However, are we unintentionally exploiting these animals to situations that they should not have to deal with? Specifically, when in come to cases of wild animals that follow their primal instinct to survive in their selective habitats. The audience witnessing these commercials, ads, and shows may feel adoration for these animals but the facts are that for these wild animals confinement is detrimental, their quality of life diminishes, and

Today, the discussions about the protection of the animal’s rights have received the attention of many people, many countries in the world. A lot of actions have been made by animal right activists to influence the world. Alex Epstein and Yaron Book, both authors of the “The Evil of Animal ‘Right’,” argue animal right activists use too much violence on their action, which is considered going against the law. Then, the authors give a lot of evidence to prove testing animals are extinct, but using animals for testing gives us new vaccines which make our lives better. Without animals for testing, how can scientists find out the vaccine for diseases? Animal right groups are making many effects to Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Over the centuries, animals have suffered from cruelty from humans. In the United States, animals are beaten, neglected, or forced to struggle for survival. Animals have been inflicted with pain from humans for reasons other than self-defense. They have been slaughtered for their food and fur for personal gain in profit. In a majority of cases they have even been abused for someone’s own personal amusement or out of rage filled impulses. In some cases animals are found and rescued. They are given the second chance in life to experience what life should be like compared to what they once had.

Unfortunately today there are many cases of animal abuse happening around the world. Animal cruelty or animal abuse can be defined as the infliction of suffering or harm upon animals for purposes other than self-defense. There are many different types of abuse such as using animals for research, using animals for entertainment purposes, abandoning animals to shelters, and animal neglect. We need to raise awareness and find a solution to these issues. Animals are suffering and we need to help them.

All living things deserve a life free from fear and pain. Animal abuse can be intentional harm or failure to take care of an animal. Either way, the animal can suffer tremendously. Animal abuse is a problem that goes unnoticed by the majority of people. This is because people are not being informed of the kind of abuse that pets go through. People need to be made aware of what some animals are being put through. If people are made aware, they could help protect animals.

Animal cruelty could involve beating, shooting or stabbing animals, or setting them on fire. Neglect is often a problem because people buy pets then forget about them. Neglect is not giving an animal necessary food, water, shelter or vet care. Because their misery is often prolonged, animals who die of neglect can suffer just as much as animals who are mistreated on purpose. Neglect and abandonment are the most common forms of pet animal abuse in the United States. Each year 10,000 bull dogs die in bullfighting. Mice represent the largest increase in research with their numbers going from 1.2 million to nearly 1.9 million in that period. Other animals also saw increases. For example, other animals increased from 7,292 to 11,167, though the change was not statistically significant. Furthermore, it has been estimated that there are 900 to 2,000 new cases every year of animal hoarding in the US, with 250,000 animals falling victim. Also, over 115 million animals including dogs, cats, horses, monkeys, birds, and a bunch of other animals are killed in laboratory experiments conducted by men and women worldwide for chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics testing every year. Regardless of how trivial or painful animal experiments may be, none are prohibited by law. Also, it is amazing that experiments can be done on any animal because the animals have no way of defending themselves or giving consent, humans can just do whatever they please.

A lot of philosophers consider sentience to be the key to understanding the ethical status of animals.

Animal rights, the rights believed to belong to animals to live free from use in medical research, hunting, and other services to humans. Animal Cruelty is the human infliction of suffering or harm upon any non-human animal, for purposes other than self-defense or survival.   Animal Cruelty exists and it should not. Animals feel pain and fear like we do, but they are helpless.They can’t tell us that it hurts, they can’t communicate their pain because we do not speak their language. “Abuse causes these innocent animals to endure so much pain, suffering, and loneliness, it can also cause an animal to become depressed, timid, or even aggressive”(Animal Abuse). Hence, the reason why the Humane Society of United States was organized in 1954 (Thomas). Animal activists wanted to be heard. As they are tired of animals being killed and they want a change. The People for Ethical Treatment of animals (PETA) was formed in 1980 (Thomas). Animal abuse isn 't just hitting an animal or forcing an  animal to fight. Taking an animal from its home to perform in zoos, circus and aquariums can also be considered to be  animal abuse. Wild animals are meant to be wild not held in captivity. In 2012 PETA filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of five of Seaworld’s captive orca whales(Foreign Affairs). For example, in 1969 Orcas were forcibly and violently separated from their mothers and put in a tank with their brothers and sisters to mate over and over and over again(PETA).

Most people agree that no animal deserves to be harmed or mistreated. However, the debates are a lot deeper than that. Animals are used all around the world helping in entertainment, companionship, food, and much more. This leaves many people wondering what exactly is mistreating an animal, how to properly care for an animal, and what rights animals should have. Industrialized animals are often accused of being abused. Animal rights are different from animal welfare; while animal rights concentrates on the legal rights of animals, meaning animals cannot be used at all by humans, even pets can be considered abused. Animal welfare, however, is making sure humans follow a certain standard of care and allows all uses of animals if it is humane.

What exactly is animal cruelty? Animal cruelty is actually categorized into two types: neglect to the point of cruelty and intentional animal cruelty. Sadly, animal cruelty in general is very common in today’s society and due to lack of awareness, is not talked about enough. Interestingly, no one technically has the constitutional right to own a pet. In most states, animals are considered property. However, animal owners have certain guidelines which they need to follow. Owning a pet does not give a person the green light to beat or starve it simply because the animal is his or her property. The less severe of the two types of animal abuse is cruel negligence. For example, animals cannot be left to sit covered in their urine and feces.

The issue of ethical treatment of animals has been a subject of discussion for many years and among many scholars. It has raised legal issues especially among the animal care specialists and bodies trying to ensure that there is a standard way of treating animals. Whether the animals are pets or are for food later on, there has been a growing need for the ethical treatment of them all. This is an issue that disturbs many Americans, me included since it is unethical to mistreat animals yet they have senses just like man does.

René Descartes, a famous philosopher, once argued that, “animals are not sentient- they are machines, like mechanical clocks, devoid of feelings and incapable of experiencing pleasure or pain” (Vaughn). Today, unlike Descartes, most people believe that animals are intrinsically or instrumentally valuable, also, whether they have or deserve any rights. Defining what cruelty is has been very subjective. To some people. An animal is just property and they can beat it around as much as they want, to others, animals are part of their family and they would never lay a finger on them. There is legislation against animal cruelty but because there is so much subjectivity, the legislation fails to deter people from abusing their animals. For there

Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is the human infliction of suffering or harm upon non-human animals, for purposes other than self-defense or survival. More narrowly, it can be harm for specific gain, such as killing animals for food or for their fur, although opinions differ with respect to the method of slaughter.

Imagine if you were thrown in a cage, beat to the verge of life, and all of this for no exact reason. These are some of the many hardships done to animals. All of this done for the entertainment of others and because of this, millions of animals are being abused every day. What is animal cruelty? Wikipedia states: “Cruelty to animals or animal abuse is the infliction of suffering or harm upon animals, other than humans, for purposes other than self-defense”. To put it in other words its harm for specific gain, such as killing animals for food or for their fur. Many people may say that that in an ideal world, animal cruelty would not exist. And, because were not an ideal world, animals are abused and beaten every single day. Should animals