Eva+H’s+2015+OpEd+Article



Animal abuse. Those two words should send shivers down your spine.

Why on earth do people mistreat animals? Why on earth do they beat them? Why on earth do they yell at them for no reason? Why on earth do they damage their trust? Why on earth do they scar them? Why on earth do they find pride in this? Why on earth do they starve them? Why on earth do they neglect them? Why on earth do they buy more? Why on earth do they kill them? WHY on EARTH do they see this behavior as acceptable?

How on earth do they look into an animal’s pleading eyes and continue the assault? How on earth do they seep at night knowing they have caused an innocent animal harm? I mean, have they seen those upsetting abused animal commercials? How on earth do they continue after seeing that? How on earth do they ignore their act of injustice? How on earth do they find pride in this? How on earth do they beat another living, breathing creature with feelings? How on earth do they consciously do this? How on earth do they get joy out of this? How on earth do they ignore the whimpering? HOW on EARTH do they see this behavior as acceptable?

Are they filling a hole in their lives? Are they sad? Are they depressed? Are they scared? Are they bored? Are they showing off? Are they proud of this? Are they relieving stress?

Well I don’t care what their personal problems are. None of those are valid reasons, they are just EXCUSES. Excuses to harm other living creatures.

The animals don’t understand why, and neither do I. The animals don’t understand what they have done wrong. There is so such thing as a bad animal, just a bad owner.

Pit bulls. Known to be dangerous and known to be beaten. It is an endless loop. They are seen as dangerous because they attack. They attack because they are neglected and beaten. They are neglected and beaten because they attack. They can’t break the cycle, only the owners can.

My dog Ava, 13 years old now, became a Seeing Eye dog at age 2. She was assigned to an old man who emotionally abused her. He didn’t use her. He never laid a hand on her. He just locked her in a dark room where she never saw the light of day. Stress took her over and she chewed all of the hair off of her legs. After that, she had to recover for a year before being brought to us. Since then, she always keeps an eye on everyone in the house, making sure we don’t ever leave her. We have helped train her since she was a puppy. You would think she would know that we would be the last people to leave her, but no. Once an animal has been abused, all previous thoughts are scarred by their tragedy. Her story isn’t as tragic and gruesome as other animal’s stories, but she was abused and never fully recovered from it. Just like humans, animals never forget the bad. Time may heal all wounds but sometimes it leaves a scar.

Animal abuse is wrong. That’s all there is to it. There is no justification for it. If you think there is, please reevaluate your opinion because it is wrong.