Animals Matter Too
By Meri, age 13, Georgia
Imagine being trapped in a box for most of your life. Imagine getting the scraps of your parents' dinner for your meal ... or maybe nothing at all. Imagine being invisible - nobody ever talks to you, or even looks at you. Worst of all, imagine being hit for no apparent reason.
Most people don't know the horrible reality of animal abuse. Whether it's animals being killed for someone's sick pleasure or animals trained to fight, it's all very serious and very wrong. Many people think that animal abuse only happens once every so often. The following statistics show how many animal abuse cases there have been in the United States each year:
2007: 703 cases (so far)
2006: 2,263 cases
2005: 1,958 cases
2004: 1,188 cases
2003: 866 cases
2002: 660 cases
2001: 487 cases
2000: 387 cases
Thousands of animals are abused every year, and yet it seems no one cares. Everyone I talked to cares so much about child abuse, but what about animals? Human or not, they have feelings and emotions.
Some reasons why people abuse animals:
To control an animal
To retaliate against an animal
To retaliate against another person
To satisfy a prejudice against a species or breed
To express anger through an animal
To enhance one's own aggressiveness
To shock people for amusement
To displace hostility from a person to an animal
To perform sadistic acts
What's even more disturbing, some people just do it for their own pleasure.
1. Take care of the animals you have, and encourage others to do the same.
2. Make a donation to Pet-Abuse.com or another animal abuse website.
3. Volunteer / donate to a local rescue shelter.
4. Get involved with your local government.
... And most importantly, if you see animal abuse, please report it!!