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 Animeonline 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.