If you’re reading this blog, you are most likely an animal lover, and as an animal lover, you find the idea of animal abuse absolutely abhorrent.    My Mother used to watch the Animal Cop shows where they would rescue an abused animal from situations that you wouldn’t put your worst enemy in.  I asked her how she can watch those shows, and she said that there was always a happy ending and the animal got the help it needed.

Unfortunately, there isn’t always a happy ending for some precious animals.  They are beaten, shot, starved and even hung with no savior to rescue them from these monsters.

Abused Dog

I have to say that when I was looking for pictures to illustrate animal abuse for this post, I saw things that I wish I never did.  It literally turned my stomach to see the cruelty that humans have inflicted upon the most precious things on Earth.  The pictures I chose to show you very mild compared to what is really going on.

When I speak to people about abuse the first thing everyone says is Why?  Why do they do it?  How can anyone hurt a poor defenseless animal?

Actually there are 9 reasons why people intentionally abuse animals that keep coming up in the databases over and over again.

1. to control an animal
2. to retaliate against an animal
3. to retaliate against another person
4. to satisfy a prejudice against a species or breed
5. to express anger through an animal
6. to enhance one’s own aggressiveness
7. to shock people for amusement
8. to displace hostility from a person to an animal
9. to perform non-specific sadism
   

   Abused Cat

These 9 reasons are broken down into two different categories:

1. Passive Cruelty or Acts of Omission which is defined as not what the abuser is doing to the animal, but what they are not doing.  This includes neglect, abandonment, not providing adequate water and food, never taking them to the vet when there is clearly something wrong with the animal or giving them the proper shelter they need from extreme weather.  Just because this term is called Passive doesn’t mean they aren’t inflicting severe harm to the animal.
2. Active Cruelty or Acts of Commission is when an abuser intentionally inflicts harm to an animal such as fighting, bestiality, poisoning and the like.  This form of cruelty is the most serious and usually associated with serious signs of psychological problems.

In researching for this post, I found out about some forms of abuse that I never thought a human was capable of.

The most prevalent types of animal abuse are:

1. Neglect or abandonment – As we discussed above, is not providing the adequate care for an animal.  Sometimes this is caused by simple ignorance in how to care for a pet.

2. Fighting – Everyone knows about Pit bull fights as Michael Vick was rightly prosecuted with, but there are other forms of fighting such as:
-          Trunking is when they put two dogs into the trunk of a car, close it and let the dogs fight it out to the death.
-          Hog-Dog Fighting is when they have a dog and a hog fight it out.  This is most prevalent in the Southern United States.
-          Badger Baiting (hold on to your hats) is when they pit a dog against a badger.  Since a badger is very fierce, they first have to beat it over the head, break it’s jaw or chain it’s leg just to give the dog a level playing field.  Then they put the badger in a pit or arena and they let several dogs loose and encourage them to kill the badger.  This kind of abuse is mostly seen in the UK, and over 10,000 badgers are killed every year.  All of these forms of fighting are usually done with Pit bulls.

3. Other forms of animal abuse are hoarding, poisoning, shooting, bestiality , beating, hanging and something called “Crush Videos“.  Crush Videos are when people get sexual gratification from young women crushing or killing a small animal by stomping on them.  It’s even better if the woman has on sexy shoes for those that have a foot fetish.   How sick is that!

What do you do if you suspect someone is abusing an animal?

1. Tread lightly.  If someone is actively abusing an animal, they are probably the type of person that is also abusing family members.  Maybe by saving an animal, you might be saving a child or spouse from abuse.  However, not all cases are clear cut, and you may not know all the facts.

1. Take notes with times, events and dates and if possible, take pictures or videos.  Do not trespass on someone else’s property to obtain these pictures – it won’t be admissible in court if done illegally and they can throw out the case.

1. It’s different in different counties, but you can call your local animal control or law enforcement, but don’t confront the person yourself as they may be dangerous.

1. If your dog was killed and you suspect someone, have a necropsy performed to find out exactly how the animal died if it’s not evident.

It’s our duty to keep these evil (in my humble opinion) people off the streets and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  Volunteering at an animal shelter or other animal organization is one way to help.  The ASPCA and Pet-Abuse.com has lots of information – Even if you help one animal from being abused, it’s worth it.

We have to do it for the animals that have no voice of their own.

Chris L Wagner

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