Animal Abuse

The street was dusty with trash floating along the roads. The rope tied tightly around its neck almost choking the poor animal. Trying to break free from the rope the dog yelps in pain as the rope tightens as he tries to jump back. He twists his head struggling to break free, he turns his head and chops down hard on the rope. The rope snaps, his neck is free. Out of breath, in pain the dog lays down on the hard pavement. An old, short woman burges out of the little house yelling. The dog attempts to avoid the punishment that is to come, but it is too late. A hard kick comes tumbling down to his side. Being flung at least a foot in the air that dog lands on his side. Winded, hurt and tired the dog stays put, scared to move. The woman walks back into the house not even checking if the dog was ok.

This is one of the many stories people around the world have probably witnessed animal abuse. In the U.S alone it is estimated that nearly 1 million animals a year are abused or killed due to domestic violence to their pets. This violence can be held within a person and taken out on their animals for no reason. Many of the people who abuse their animals don’t know that what they are doing is abusive and cruel to their pets. For example, people tend to leave their dogs alone outside in the yard with an open dog house and sometimes the dog house can get flooded with rain, or they put their dogs on really short chains that cut deep into their skin. Other way this kind of abuse can happen is if they don’t pay any attention to their pets. For example, they might forget to water their cat or leave them in the car on a hot day with the windows rolled up. These are one of the many kinds of ways this abuse can happen.

Some experts say that 70% of animal abusers also have records of other crimes, mainly violent. For example some serial killers have been know to abuse animals as young teens and kids, Albert DeSalvo also known as the Boston Strangler. He killed thirteen women, caged cats and dogs and shot arrows at them through a box. Jeffrey Dahmer stuck frogs, cats, and dogs heads on sticks. Dennis Rader, known as the BTK killer terrorized the people of Kansas, wrote about his childhood that he had hung a dog and a cat. They do this because they are psychopaths, which means they suffer from a chronic mental disorder with violent social behavior. That means that they don’t feel empathy like most humans and they act violently in most situations, so as a young kid they might not believe that it would hurt the animal or they liked to watch the animal in pain. These are very rare cases but they do pop up every now and then.

What some readers don’t realize is that these crimes happen all around the world. Most can even escalate to death. Some of the ways to prevent this abuse is if you are witnessing this happen in your neighborhood you can say something to the abusers if they don’t realize or you can call 911 and report the abuser. One of the most effective ways to help these animals is to arm yourself with as much knowledge about animal abuse as possible. You can find information to help with this in the Types Of Animal Cruelty on the Aid Animals website.

Written by: Kiana