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

Plastics: The Crisis

Putting my cap on, I started picking up some trash. I was really close to the water at one point and saw something swimming in the water. It looked like something a brown and slimy. It had to be an otter! It just lingered around this one spot near the beach for the longest time and eventually started climbing onto my nerves. When no one was looking, I went closer to the murky water. I saw the otter quickly swimming away, freeing itself from a mangled brown plastic bag now suspended by the water. I waded into the cool water and picked it up, absolutely disgusted by what was just seen. This is a story from Beach Clean Up volunteer Khantey Lim.

This is a service called “The Beach Cleanup” that goes out to Changi beach to pick up tossed trash. They spend an hour there and find heaps of plastic on the beach. This service helps to fish out most trash and their chance to get washed into the ocean, clearly making a difference to the marine environment.

Gandhi once said “There is enough in the world for everyone's need, there is not enough in the world for everyone’s greed”. The crisis of overconsumption is that people are blindly using resources for pleasure without awareness of its impact on the Environment.

Plastics cover up most landfilling spaces in numerous places around the world. The problem with plastic is that it is made out of polymers. Polymers are a bunch of long noodle like strands that are woven together and held tightly by chemical bonds. The problem with polymers is that they don’t biodegrade naturally as they are too large for microorganisms to break down. Plastics are also quite expensive to recycle, and they release harmful gasses into the air when they are. This means that plastic is a material created by humans that has been designed to throw away. All plastics that have been created still exists in some shape or form cluttering up our planet and destroying lots of nature. The more we dispose it, the more it harms our home.

Researchers say that 50% of used plastic is landfilled, 30% of it is made into durable goods and the remainder is disregarded. These disregarded plastics eventually find themselves floating into oceans, which causes lots of inconvenience to marine life. Some animals choke to death trying to eat these plastics thinking that they are food while others have consumed so much plastic that they are not able to eat any real food- hence making them starve to death, and even some animals get entangled in it- and they cannot survive the long lasting durability.

Plastics live a very long life. Almost too long, while the plastic is floating in the ocean, the sun can break them down into tinier pieces through a process called photodegradation. These microscopic plastics are found in oceans, beaches, and stranded on land. Micro plastics attract toxic chemicals. These micro plastics are then eaten by marine animals, then these micro plastics are then transferred throughout the rest food chain. Scientists are still trying to find out the effect of this on humans.

UWCSEA is making an effort to reduce plastic consumption. This school has changed our takeaway cutlery and glasses to Cornware. Its a healthier material for the environment. Also, every 2 in 3 students in the Jra classroom say that they are willing to bring in their own lunch box to get food from the canteen. If bringing a lunchbox to school becomes a routine, there will be less plastic and food waste disposal at the school, creating a greener environment. The school shop has also started giving out paper and cloth bags instead of plastic ones.

If we consume less plastic, less plastic would have to be manufactured. Over time, there will be less plastic that would be washed into the ocean and cause inconvenience to marine life. Also, less trees and wildlife habitats would be destroyed to create plastic landfill sites. The best part is that the air we breathe would be a lot less polluted because less plastic would need to be created and incinerated. The wildlife population in the world has almost halved since our existence on earth so these measures should be taken as quickly as possible. Visit this site to find out more about how you could start living a plastic free life.

In conclusion, we should be aware of the plastic problem. We can see through our own eyes that this is a large issue, that will only get worse if the problem is not taken seriously. Whenever you see a piece of plastic loitering around on its own, find a trash can where it could be safely disposed off. Ask if you could get recycling cans and ensure that plastics are recycled or disposed away from wildlife habitats. And always remember that you can reduce, reuse, re-fuse, recycle, and re-design. Get creative with these R’s, up-cycle trash into treasures to raise awareness about the plastic problem. Find alternative solutions to your plastic consumption. Every action counts, make your change now!