In a world burdened with increasing population, animals are bound to take a back seat. Nevertheless, the depths of cruelty that humanity can descend to are astonishing in their extremity. While it may not be possible to adapt a life of a complete vegetarian or vegan and let go of using animal products altogether, instances of needless cruelty to innocent animals by humans make one wonder about the fate of this planet in the not too distant future.
The most prevalent instances of animal abuse in the domestic sphere are neglect and abandonment. People often take up a pet without considering the long-term consequences. Subsequently, when the first flush is over, they find in their hands an animal which is not all cuddly sweetness but a great deal of responsibility and caring. As a result, animals are let out into the open streets to fend for themselves or are left behind in a locked apartment without food, water or heat.
Pets are not used to fending for themselves; they wander in absolute shock and grief, terrorized of the world outside or starve slowly within the confines of the house, not realizing what they have done wrong to deserve such treatment. In either case, they die in agony. Sometimes, an owner will do the ‘humane’ thing and leave the pet at a shelter, where they will be euthanized. The term ‘euthanasia’ means that the pet is old or ill beyond recovery and will have to be put down so as to minimize its suffering. In reality, strong and healthy pets are killed in ways cruel beyond imagination.
In America, animals are put in metal or wooden boxes, even used oil drums, sometimes searing hot, in which carbon dioxide pumped. The animals agonizingly choke to death. Sometimes they are electrocuted or placed alive into freezers. Many helpless animals are often shot in full view of other animals. Often the pets are dragged to their death screaming in terror, clawing at each other and injuring themselves in their desperate bid to escape death.
This is the ‘humane’ face of animal abuse. There are other faces present as well, right under our noses. In the United States, millions of vertebrate animals are used for laboratory testing every year. The animals are burned, blinded, maimed, and injected with lethal infections, gassed and more. This is in the name of research for medicines, cosmetics, and other household utilities. Animals are dissected without adequate anesthesia so that medical students can learn their trade. Every year, animals are bred and killed in the hundreds of thousands for the purpose of using their body parts for research when human tissues, which are actually genuinely useful material, are incinerated.
People who think that they are animals lovers and buy a pet can contribute to animal abuse, albeit inadvertently. The cute animals available at pet shops or stores are usually produced in mills where unscrupulous breeders let females breed again and again until they can do no more and then they are killed. Indiscriminate breeding produces puppies born with genetic defects. Once they are born, the puppies are put into cages where they can barely stand and shipped off to stores.
A large part of the dog population is strays. While managing them remains an issue, most countries apply methods unacceptable by any human values – poisoning, shooting, and electrocution to name a few. It seems that spaying or neutering them is too bothersome for some cruel people; killing the defenseless animals is the easier and cost effective option.
Sometimes there is a story on TV showing a circus animal that has escaped. Animals do not choose to perform in a circus, unlike their human counterparts. They are forced to do so under torture- induce fear. Elephants are routinely beaten with bull hooks, leaving them screaming and bleeding. They are also poked with electric prods. In addition, Horses are stabbed by pitchforks and whipped, as well as punched in the face and their lips are twisted painfully to ensure total control.
Animals such as big cats and chimpanzees are kicked and beaten. Apart from these, animals are made to travel in boxed conditions within extreme climates. They are denied food and water. Sometimes animals spend their entire life in shackles. Tigers, bears and other big animals are crammed in cages where they have to share space and are forced to eat, drink, defecate and urinate in the same place. Baby elephants, still not weaned from their mothers, are sold away.
With America being a major meat consuming country, slaughterhouses abound. Apart from problems arising because of untrained handlers which give rise to contamination, cruelty towards the animals led to be killed is rampant. They are hoisted by their leg, stabbed directly into their hearts, somersaulted, throats butchered, spinal cords punctured, or a blunt instrument driven to their skull. All of this happens, while the animal is alive, conscious and terrorized. Since horse-meat is banned in the USA, they are shipped to Canada and other countries to be slaughtered.
Apart from the day-to-day life, where animals, despite being an integral part of society, are subject to unspeakable cruel practices, other forms of social requirement which are entirely human made, further expose animals to torture and cruelty. Two of the most guilty spheres are fashion and greed.
Furs are something every vain woman will desire. Each bit of fur not only takes an innocent life away; it takes it away in the most gruesome manner possible. Fur farms use the cheapest way possible to kill an animal, so they are often beaten to death, suffocated or bled until they die. The animals are also skinned alive and then left to die a slow and agonizing death.
Animals are trapped in the wild where they suffer shock from blood loss, dehydration, gangrene and frostbite. Steel traps often cut through the bone and conibear traps crush their necks with pressure of 90 pounds or more per square inch. Water set traps leave beavers, muskrats and other animals to die while struggling for more than nine minutes before they drown. An animal which is being targeted for fur cannot hope for a merciful death by a bullet, as that will damage its pelt. If found alive, it will be clubbed to death instead.
Baby seals are hooked and dragged to boats while still conscious. They are often bludgeoned to death with metal clubs by barbarians. Their carcass is left to rot, as there is no market for the meat. They are yet to start swimming or eat their first solid food. As there is a ban on a few animal trapping, such as fox for instance, the babies die a horrendously cruel and needless death, so that some vain woman may wrap herself up in fur.
Another source of fur is rabbit, which are often ‘farmed’ for the purpose. They are made to stay in wire cages which cause blisters on their feet. Most of these innocent, beautiful, precious creatures are skinned alive by barbarians. Their fur is cruelly plucked from their body, leaving the rabbits in shock and agony. The French breed of Angora rabbit has its fur removed this way.
Fur is… Legally Cruel. No laws stop the suffering of animals on ‘fur farms.’ Only you can help them. Please don’t buy fur coats or products with fur trim.
Whales are stabbed to death, or harpooned through their flesh and dragged along the boat. They are animals which flee from their hunters until they are too tired. These creatures are targeted because of their blubber, while the meat is thrown away. Even the poor dolphins are brutally slaughtered each year. Their blood turns the seawater red.
Sadistic humans use animals for blood sports, confining domesticated or pet animals and killing them where they are unable to flee. They sexually abuse animals by penetrating them, causing serious tears in their anal ducts. Furthering the human perversion are crush videos, where a deadly woman is seen crushing a small animal to death with her spiked heels, all in the name of sexual gratification. Animals are regularly used in blood sports, again in the name of gratification of the senses, where they are made to injure, maim, and kill each other.
A society that fails to protect defenseless animals is a sick and evil society. A society that necessitates killing of innocent creatures goes beyond that. In order to promote free and fair living conditions for humans, cruelty towards animals need to be stopped, unequivocally. The animals deserve better and we do too.