Animal cruelty is physical pain suffering, beating, or death of any animal. How can we stop animal cruelty? How can we help them gain a voice? There are hundreds of thousands of animals killed each year due to animal cruelty. Animal cruelty is a rapid growing problem worldwide.

There are many different forms of animal cruelty such a physical and mental mistreatment, abandonment, neglecting, and also for scientific research; such as animal testing.

Animal cruelty ranges from households, puppy mills, zoos, factory farms, and many more. Facts from the website Peta.org states on today’s factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy, windowless sheds and confined to wine cages, gestation crates, barren dirt lots, and other cruel confinement systems. These animals will never raise their families, root around in the soil, build nests, or do anything that is natural and important to them. Most won’t even feel the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter. Opinions and stories like this help educate people on what they are preventing animals to do.


Animal cruelty is very inhuman; animals are alive and should be treated with respect just like humans. Animal cruelty is a serious matter that needs to end, and those who are guilty of it should be punished. Animals experience pain, fear, boredom, and many more things like we do.

There is a strong link between animal abuse and human abuse. From the website Peta.org it says in one study, 70% of animal abusers also had records for other crimes. Domestic violence victims whose animals were abused saw the animal cruelty as one more violent episode in a long history of indiscriminate violence aimed at them and their vulnerability. Investigation of animal abuse is often the first point of social services intervention for a family in trouble. Many animal abusers later go on to violently hurt and harm people. Animal cruelty tends to be a starting point for a much wider range of problems and has a big effect on our environment and community.


There are many ways to help end animal abuse or cruelty, ways such as help bring awareness to your school or community. More people should be aware of animal cruelty before this situation gets any worse. "Cruelty to dumb animals is one of the distinguishing vices of low and base minds. Wherever it is found, it is a certain mark of ignorance and meanness; a mark which all the external advantages of wealth, splendor, and nobility, cannot obliterate. It is consistent neither with learning nor true civility." - William Jones.


If you saw an animal being abused, what would you do? For more information you can go to http://www.peta.org/ .