Rachel+D.+H’s+2015+OpEd+Article

Animal abuse is the same thing as child abuse. If not Worse. To anyone reading this the pictures and the story behind them makes me cry, if you have a weak stomach please shield your eyes but read the story.





Animal abuse is getting more and more common, and worse. People buy these animals, they starve them once they can not afford to feed them. they tie them up and leave them there to suffer through the rain and the sun without water or a shelter. my first picture is of a cat, no older than 3 wrapped in duct tape. first off she is not able to move, it is tight and suffocating her, its hard to breath. when the tape was removed, much of her hair was removed with it.

The second picture was posted on facebook, two men posing for a picture with a kitten they put and sealed in a jar. after causing an uproar the man said im sorry it was a joke. they were not charged with anything, even though the proof is there.

A circus elephant standing on his nose. you try doing that, tell me how much it hurts.

A dog hanging from a string being hit like a pinata.

This is a Cat and her Babies, all four of her kittens were taken from her, all of them were shot multiple times. One of the kittens had a piece of rope tied around its neck and its neck was broken from being pulled. another had its chest cut open and its heart hanging out. all of them had their heads caved in after being stepped on. they were placed back where they were taken from and the mother kept licking her babies, hoping they would move. Who in their right mind would do that to a cat and her babies. The Mother cats face makes me wince, the obvious hurt in her eyes. Would you like your babies killed and unrecognizable from wounds to be placed back in front of you and you can do anything?



This is Glee, she was found like this with a puppy, both left to die. A pedestrian picked them up and took them to the Vet, Glee started purring when she was picked up. After X-rays, the Vet determined she had had her eyes gouged by someone using something sharp. She was found December 1st 2013, they thought they would have to put her down, but three days later on December 4th she as operated on after getting fluids. she survived her operation, but only one eye was saved.



She purrs when she hears a voice and when she is held but she cant see out of her eye yet, they give her ointment hoping the redness will go away and she will be able to see. This cat, despite the pain she was in and went through to get into that state Purrs at human contact though Human contact is what caused her her misery.



Glee has beautiful Green eyes and has recovered, she can see out of her one eye. The Dog she was found with had to have broken leg amputated and it was found out he was barley a year old. Animal cruelty is all around us, if you can stand to live in a world where animals are caused pain on purpose, then I'm sorry but i hope you endure the same fate as an abused animal. I watched Tinkerbell and the legend of the Neverbeast and even in that movie there was animal abuse. It surprised me and instead of thinking its a cartoon, i thought of how much it must have hurt the Neverbeast to get rocks thrown at him. Little kids don't think that, they see a cartoon, but even though they don't know it, that is always engraved in the back of their minds, and eventually they will throw a rock at a cat, and then they will start taking their anger out on animals and it will go on from their. It took 27 days for her to look like she does now, she lives in Finland, and when her hair isn't to long she can see out of her other eye about 20%

I have to be careful when I take my dog to the dog park, because there are other owners there that will kick him if he runs up to them. I have talked to other owners and they have said it has happened to their dogs before. Someone kicks them. If you are going to kick a complete strangers dog, what does that mean you will do to your own? If you cant afford to take care of an animal, or are in no right state of mind to do so then you shouldn't. Don't put them through that. They just want to love you and be your friend.

If you know of animal abuse please contact the Humane Society and the Police right away. You can help stop other animals going through what Glee went through, and if you are looking to get an animal, adopt from the Humane Society, Help an animal like Glee.


 * Approximately 7.6 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, approximately 3.9 million are dogs and 3.4 million are cats.
 * Each year, approximately 2.7 million animals are euthanized (1.2 million dogs and 1.4 million cats).
 * Approximately 2.7 million shelter animals are adopted each year (1.4 million dogs and 1.3 million cats).
 * About 649,000 animals who enter shelters as strays are returned to their owners. Of those, 542,000 are dogs and only 100,000 are cats.
 * Of the dogs entering shelters, approximately 35% are adopted, 31% are euthanized and 26% of dogs who came in as strays are returned to their owner.
 * Of the cats entering shelters, approximately 37% are adopted, 41% are euthanized, and less than 5% of cats who came in as strays are returned to their owners.
 * About twice as many animals enter shelters as strays compared to the number that are relinquished by their owners.

Most Common Victims
In media-reported animal cruelty cases, dogs—and pit bull-type dogs, in particular—are the most common victims of animal cruelty. Of 1,880 cruelty cases [|*] reported in the media in 2007:

> === Horses ===
 * 64.5% (1,212) involved dogs
 * 18% (337) involved cats
 * 25% (470) involved other animals
 * Reported abuse against pit bull-type dogs appears to be on the rise: in 2000–2001, pit bull-type dogs were involved in 13% of reported dog-abuse cases; in 2007, they were involved in 25% of reported dog-abuse cases. *some cases involved multiple species


 * According to the American Horse Council, Americans own more than 9 million horses, up from more than 6 million in the mid-1990s. Backyard breeding fueled the boom in pet horses. Of the more than 2 million Americans who own horses, more than one-third have a household income of less than $50,000. [ [|1] ]
 * Neither the total number of horse neglect cases nor the percentage of total animal abuse cases classified as horse neglect has risen since the [|closure of all U.S. horse slaughter plants].

Livestock
As HSUS investigations into [|slaughterhouses] and cattle [|auctions] have revealed, animal abuse abounds in the [|factory farm industry]. Despite increased feed prices, we found no indication in the news media that the number of livestock neglect cases is increasing, other than a few shocking, high-profile cases. This may, however, simply be a reflection of the weak protections afforded to livestock under state animal cruelty laws.


 * Many states specifically exclude livestock or any "common" agricultural practices from their cruelty laws, and even when good laws exist, it can sometimes be difficult to convince law enforcement to make an arrest and/or to seize livestock who are being neglected or abused.
 * Over the past few years, the number of reported animal neglect cases involving cows and pigs has dipped slightly.
 * In 2007, there were 20 reported neglect cases involving cows and eight involving pigs, down from 33 cow neglect cases and 11 pig neglect cases in 2006, and 26 cow neglect cases and nine pig neglect cases in 2005.

So I dont get in trouble i took the pictures off of the internet and researched their stories, also the last part not in back print has been copied off of the ASPCA and Human Society websites, they are just facts. Thank you.