Contents
An essay for students on animal cruelty
The world has a long history of subjecting animals to atrocities for its own benefits. Ever since human civilization began, animals have been tortured to make human lives easier. Besides, cruelty against human beings is often highlighted on various platforms but brutality against animals finds little attention. But the pain is a miserable emotion that all species on this planet feel equally and inflicting it on someone intentionally is a sinful act. Moreover, humans can still express their pain or be vocal about it as they can speak and make others understand their agony. Whereas, animals do not have the privilege to voice their pain, and humans take complete advantage of this harsh reality. This essay sheds light on the broader definition of animal cruelty, the various ways in which animals are subjected to brutality, and solutions to it. Also, this essay explains the need to pay heed to animal cruelty and confront it with awareness, promotion of animal rights, and empathy towards the voiceless creatures.
When you write a personal narrative essay, you should not only express your story but also highlight why your story is important. In most cases, these essays are written with the purpose of recalling a recent incident, emotions, or specific events you have witnessed. Also, your essay narrating your personal story should guide the readers through the essay with clarity and enable them to draw conclusions. One more thing worth noting is that a personal narrative essay can be real as well as fictional. But some people argue that if you write a fictional essay, it is no longer a personal narrative and that is absolutely true in fact. Thus, there is a larger acceptance for non-fictional personal narrative essays as they are authentic and relate to real incidents. Moreover, it is a subjective essay that you write in the first person, unlike the persuasive essays that are objective and written in the third person. Besides, this essay is different from other academic writings in the sense that this is only narration and does not aim to persuade the reader or prove any argument. The objective is to simply inform the readers about the pertinent experiences of your life and leave it to their interpretation. You share your thoughts, opinions, and ideas with the readers in coherence with the experience you find worth sharing.
Understanding animal cruelty
In the simplest terms, cruelty can be defined as the act of inflicting suffering on others while finding pleasure in doing so. In multifarious ways, livestock is put through cruel treatment for various purposes that serve mankind. There is a wide spectrum of human behaviors that are harmful to animals ranging from ignorance to evil killings. Besides, depriving animals of food, shelter, water, and veterinary services also fall under the category of animal cruelty. Furthermore, malicious torturing of animals, sacrificing animals, maiming, mutilating, and intentional killing are ghastly acts of animal brutality. Keeping animals in captivity or caged against their will also qualifies as acts of cruelty committed against livestock.
The reason why the world should be concerned about animal cruelty is obvious. Subjecting any creature to abuse or pain is not only wrong on moral grounds but is rather illicit. Just like humans seek protection against abuse and violence, other creatures on this planet too deserve the same. In the contemporary world, there are incessant debates on human rights and how certain sections of society are vulnerable to barbaric practices. However, the voice to put an end to animal cruelty does not resonate as loudly as the outrage against human suffering. There are some alarming statistics that demand immediate human attention. The data on animal cruelty makes it pretty evident that animals are as oppressed as weaker sections of humanity if not more.
Comprehension of animal cruelty in numbers
According to the latest estimates, there are around 8.7 million eukaryotic species on this planet whereas more than 80 percent of land species are yet to be discovered. Yet only the homo sapiens dominate nature and feel that it is absolutely fine to torture or mishandle other species in the name of pleasure or scientific research. The alarming statistics on brutality against animals are going to consolidate this claim against humanity. Every 60 seconds an animal is exposed to abuse leaving them dreaded, agonized, or desperate. Furthermore, more than 60 percent of abused animals across the globe are dogs who are subjected to cruelty in numerous ways.
("37 Deeply Disturbing Animal Abuse Statistics & Facts", 2020)Probing further, in the United States of America, more than 10 million animals are abused every year. To substantiate, there are around 10000 puppy mills in the US where commercial breeding of dogs is done under horrible conditions. In fact, in the year 2006, 3 slaughterhouses in the US slaughtered more than 100,000 horses for human consumption. Besides, dog shelters in the US receive around 3.4 million dogs every year. These stats speak volumes of the widespread animal cruelty prevalent in the United States.
To continue, around 250,000 animals across the globe are victims of hoarding or captivation. Also, more than 95 percent of animals killed or abused each year are farm animals. Another reason for daunting animal cruelty numbers lies in scientific research or laboratory experiments. Around 115 million animals are used for laboratory research and experiments annually. Around 75000 dogs are subjected to torture each year in labs across the US and more than 19000 cats are tortured for the same purpose. To augment, around 60000 rats, guinea pigs, monkeys, and mice are used by the cosmetics industry to test harmful chemicals.
("Cats in Laboratories | PETA", 2020)Cruelty against wild animals
Every year, millions of wild animals are poached or tortured for tourism, skin, fur, tusks, and other commercial purposes. It is worrisome to note that more than 100 million sharks are killed every year for their fin. To add, around 40000 elephants are poached each year for their ivory. In fact, if these trends continue to prevail, some populations of wild animals might soon go extinct. Besides, some people keep wild animals like snakes, turtles, and lizards as pets and deprive them of their natural habitat. More than 75 percent of these animals die within one year after they are kept as pets in captivity. Also, around 126 big cats have died in the US since 1990 due to confinement in circuses across America. Animals that are used for circus spend 96 percent of their lives in cages and such confinement is a clear act of animal abuse.
("Thirteen Frightening Wild Animal Facts | Saving Earth | Encyclopedia Britannica", 2020)In the next section, this essay highlights the various causes of animal cruelty. There are various purposes for which animals are put through extreme torture that can even lead to death. These causes range from psychological reasons to large scale commercial practices that benefit from exploitation or poaching of animals. However, there is no cause that can justify the immoral and deplorable actions of torturing innocent animals mercilessly. These causes only expose the selfishness of humans and establish a correlation between violent human behaviors and animal cruelty.
Causes of animal cruelty
Commercial Purposes
There are many industries that benefit from abusing animals or subjecting them to excessive torture. Wild animals are mostly poached for their skin, fur, or ivory. Also, cosmetic industries abuse animals for testing chemical products that can put animals through extreme pain and irritation. Besides, breeding puppies for sale is a very common commercial practice wherein dogs are kept in terrible conditions and are caged. These are only to name a few commercial purposes where economic growth is put much higher above the cost of the life of animals.
Neglect
Human neglect is another cause as well as a form of mistreatment of animal species. Human beings often ignore the need to provide animals with the basic amenities of food, water, or adequate care. Every year, at least thousands of stray animals starve to death in the dire absence of food. Not only this but lack of veterinary care due to human negligence is another cause of agony among animals. While humans are pretty considerate of medical care for their pets, only a few people take the initiative to extend such care to strays or farm animals. Also, the ignorance of humans towards climate change is exposing animals to various risks of extinction.
Violent human behaviors
According to the American Psychiatric Association, animal cruelty is linked to disorders of conduct. Besides, psychological research states that traumatic events in the life of individuals can instigate violent behaviors and provoke them to inflict cruelty on fellow humans or animals. In most cases, violent offenders have a history of childhood or adolescent traumas. Such people see violence around them and are influenced in a negative way by it. Further, they take pleasure or seek relief in taking out their frustration or anger on naive animals by killing them or injuring them.
("(PDF) Animal cruelty and psychiatric disorders", 2020)Food consumption
This is one of the major causes of animal cruelty in all parts of the world. Billions of animals are sacrificed every year for the consumption of their meat. On average, an American male consumes around 4.8 ounces of meat every day while females consume roughly 3 ounces of meat every day. This is indicative of the expanse of the meat industry in the US and the abundance of animals that are killed to keep it thriving. To substantiate, more than 50 billion chickens are slaughtered for food every year and 1.5 billion pigs are killed for food. These numbers are further rising to support the meat requirements of a constantly growing population. In addition, it is concerning to note that the consumption of seafood per ear is in excess of 100 million tonnes.
"This is how many animals we eat each year", 2020)
Lack of infrastructure
Animals live in deplorable conditions in zoos and wildlife sanctuaries in most parts of the world. Wild animals have less space in zoos as compared to their natural habitats because of which they are exploited or unhappy. Most of the zoos violate the basic laws and norms for zoos and mistreat the inhabitants. They allow visitors to interact with or touch zoo animals and this is against the general guidelines for zoos. Besides, zoos fail to provide as much space or diet as wild animals get in the forest.
Lack of implementation of wildlife laws
There are stringent law provisions in almost all nations to protect wild animals from poaching. These laws are aimed at safeguarding the endangered species from hunting and other tortures. However, there is only little implementation of these laws hence rendering them toothless. The loopholes in these laws allow industries or hunters to kill animals for leisure, skin, or ivory.
Lab experiments
Lab experiments in pharmaceutical industries and other industries often involve testing prototypes on animals. Many biological or other experiments conducted in the lab lead to the exploitation of animals held captive. Besides, animals like mice, cats, dogs, rats, and others are sold for lab experiments that may cause severe health issues or even death.
Sexual frustration in humans
Animals can also be subjected to sexual abuse as some human beings even go to the extent of raping animals. Juveniles are the offenders of sexual acts against animals in most cases. These acts arise out of sexual frustration or lack of sexual education in teenagers or adolescents.
Next, after analyzing the various causes of animal cruelty, this essay underlines some effective remedies that can minimize or completely mitigate the evil of animal cruelty.
Effective remedies to shrink animal cruelty
Because the causes of animal cruelty are multidimensional, it is going to take a multidisciplinary approach to resolve this issue. Measures to obliterate brutality against animals need to be taken on various fronts so that the collective success can make a big positive impact in this direction. The following are the solutions for reducing animal cruelty.
Promotion of a veganism
Veganism is a way of life that is free from any kind of animal cruelty or abuse for food, clothes, and other purposes. Wider promotion of veganism in human societies can encourage people to give up on meat and clothes fabricated from the skin of animals. In this way, awareness around a lifestyle principled on veganism can solve a large chunk of the problem of animal cruelty.
Stricter implementation of wildlife law
It is time that governments adopt a proactive approach to putting an end to animal cruelty through legal measures. Political establishments should make sure that people comply with the wildlife laws and the execution is proper. Also, if needed, the legislators can legislate new laws for better protection of animals. People who carry out mass killings of wild animals do not have any fear of the law. However, with a more stringent approach, governments can instigate a feeling of deterrence in offenders.
Sponsoring of more animal shelters
Governments can sponsor more animal shelters to rescue tortured or stray animals and give them a secure environment. There are various NGOs working in the direction of rescuing animals in need. If the governments can back such organizations in moral and financial means, society can have a better response to animal cruelty.
Banning the use of animals for entertainment
Another way to protect animals from exploitation is to forbid by law the use of animals for entertainment purposes like the circus. Animals are put through massive torture and abuse while training them to perform at such entertainment-oriented events. Animal rights can be safeguarded by providing them relief from such ill-treatment.
Education and awareness
There is almost negligible awareness in society on issues like animal rights and animal protection. This is a major reason why there is widespread animal abuse against farm animals as well as wild animals. By creating more awareness and educating people on the fair treatment that animals deserve, a significant part of the problem can be solved. Humans need to have more empathy in their conscience for animals to understand their needs and their right to be treated with dignity. Needless to say, most evils of society can be challenged with education and awareness. This holds true for animal rights as well as the rights of animals.
Sample essay on animal cruelty
The subsequent section contains a sample essay on brutality and violence against animals. This essay can serve as a helpful tool to write an essay or assignment on animal cruelty. Furthermore, for any other requirements pertaining to your academic tasks, you can get in touch with Assignment help4me to avail of assistance. Our service teams are committed to provide quick responses and expert help for all sorts of assignments and research papers.
Veganism: the way forward to eradicate animal brutality from society
Introduction
The debates on human rights, ending gender or racial discrimination, feminism, and equality have intensified over the years. But animal rights and talks of mitigating cruelty against animals do not find much purchase in these debates. All around the globe, innocent animals are tortured, slaughtered, or held captive in the name of food, entertainment, or other commercial benefits. These practices of extreme cruelty against livestock often go ignored as people find elation in serving animals on platters. A large part of the human diaspora is convinced that animals are a part of the food chain and there is no harm in killing them for food. However, in contrast to orthodox times, there is now some buzz around animal rights and the need to put an end to animal cruelty. This rising awareness has inspired a new style of living known as veganism that is gradually getting famous. This essay explains what veganism as a style of living actually means and how it can have a positive impact on creating a more equitable space for all species. By the medium of this essay, people can realize the need to promote the idea of veganism.
Body
Veganism means a style of living in which there is no harm done to animals whether it is for food, for their skin, or for any other use. Such a lifestyle is centered around the idea of eliminating all forms of injustice and barbaric treatment that animals are put through. The core value of veganism lies in the fact that it aims to remove the tag of ‘commodities’ from the recognition of animals. Besides, people who follow this lifestyle involving no abuse of animals are called vegans. Ethical vegans firmly believe and opine that all creatures have the equal right to live and enjoy the liberty of life. In fact, veganism also calls out the use the animals or livestock for agricultural purposes and aspires to create awareness around the idea of freedom for animals. Furthermore, veganism inspires people to give up the consumption of animal flesh or milk given the reason that there are ample alternatives available.
Talking about the origin of veganism, this idea or this term was coined in 1944 by Donald Walson. Even before that, the notion of vegetarianism started in the 19th century and there were various movements to promote the same. Also, some people mistake veganism and vegetarianism as meaning the same and they are usually complacent about the same. However, it is worth noting here that vegan and vegetarian diets are not exactly the same. While vegans do not consume any animal products including milk, vegetarians do not consume meat. In the case of vegetarians, they do not give up the use of animal products other than meat like in the case of vegans. Besides, vegans of strong ethics do not even wear clothes that are fabricated from animal skin. They strongly oppose the use of animals for entertainment purposes and even the commercial breeding of animals. It is also possible that there may exist certain variations in the style of veganism that people follow in different parts of the globe. It is vital that to make a real difference in society to mitigate animal cruelty, people should understand the striking contrast between veganism and vegetarianism. Next, this essay portrays veganism as a powerful movement against the brutality done on animals.
If veganism is promoted with the right awareness and practices to follow a vegan lifestyle, it can turn out to be an emphatic social change. As more and more people are influenced by this lifestyle or ideology, more would be the sensitivity in society for the value of animal lives. Animal cruelty is done with different intentions and for many different purposes. The most common causes of animal cruelty include the consumption of meat, agricultural use of animals, dairy purposes, leather fabrics, and so on. In its true essence, veganism confronts all these causes and purposes that inflict pain or abuse on animals. In fact, veganism does not only condemn and confront the use of animal products but also creates awareness about the plant-based foods people can use or consume. So, vegans are also encouraging the use of other alternatives that do not involve any sort of animal torture in their manufacturing. They enlighten people through various campaigns and events about the best plant-based products for eating. Therefore, the influence of veganism in society is inversely proportional to instances of animal cruelty and killings. Veganism alone can negate various causes of animal exploitation and create a more inclusive world. In such a world, the idea of co-existence is going to prevail over the idea of killing other species for food. Moreover, trends suggest that there is positive growth in the number of vegans in the US. Between 2014 and 2019, the percentage of vegans in the US increased from 1 percent to 5 percent. If these trends prevail, more people are going to join the vegan movement and this can be significant in the direction of reducing animal cruelty.
Conclusion
To summarize, as the population continues to grow manifold, more animals are going to be sacrificed in the future to feed humans. Already billions of animals are slaughtered each year for consumption and millions of others are tortured for other purposes. In such a scenario, veganism promises to be a major social change that humans can adapt to and further promote. As a virtue, veganism ensures that animals get their well-deserved liberty of life and are not killed mercilessly to suit the needs of others. Animals are also creatures of nature and they should be treated with love, care, empathy and justice. With the popularization of veganism as an ideology, there is now hope that animal cruelty can be instrumentally brought down. In the pursuit of reducing atrocities against animals veganism is clearly the way forward. People should try to learn about veganism and further educate others about the social and health benefits of it.
To conclude, there are multiple ways in which animals are subjected to cruelty and malicious treatment. Statistics suggest that the evil of brutality against animals exists on a very large scale and needs the immediate attention of the world. Animals are butchered or exploited mostly for commercial purposes and there is widespread neglect among humans about the basic needs of animals. A lot of animals die of hunger and extreme weather or medical conditions as they do not receive care or health services. In some cases, animals are also abused sexually by human beings or are tortured by humans to settle frustrations and rage. However, there are various progressive solutions to animal cruelty that can be undertaken by governments, communities, and individuals. Some of the most promising remedies to reduce animal cruelty include creating awareness of human rights, making wildlife laws stricter, and encouraging veganism.
Further readings
References
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37 Deeply Disturbing Animal Abuse Statistics & Facts. (2020). Retrieved 7 December 2020, from https://petpedia.co/animal-abuse-statistics/
(PDF) Animal cruelty and psychiatric disorders. (2020). Retrieved 7 December 2020, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11269072_Animal_cruelty_and_psychiatric_disorders
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