Abusing Our Animals
On a late May afternoon in southwest Baltimore, 2 year old Phoenix, an old female Pit Bull Terrier was doused in gasoline and set on fire. A young police officer was patrolling the neighborhood when she saw smoke rising from behind one of the beaten down houses in this not so nice part of town. She bolted out of the car and behind the house to find a dog that was lit on fire she put the flames out with her sweater and called for help to take the dog in. Phoenix lived for four days with 95% of her body burned, but she died from a failed kidney and had to be put down.
Animal abuse is a very painful topic for many to talk about. A lot of people think that animal abuse is a topic that should not be shown on TV and should not be shown to the public for people to see because many small children should not have to see animals that have burns and bruises and scars all over them. Many others also think that there are already many laws that are agent’s animal abuse and that we don’t need any more. If there are already laws that are being broken why many people think more laws will stop them.
Animal abuse happens all around the world every day and there are not very many laws that help reinforce that this issue is taken care of. However there are many states that are trying to help with this growing issue. In 1990 only 6 states in the United States of America had laws protecting animals from abuse, now in the year 2013 there are 46. Two years ago, in 2011, the American society For the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals started the nation’s first Mobile Animal Crime Scene Investigation Unit, this is a moving hospital and forensics lad that travels around the country helping traditional law enforcement agencies that try and track the evidence trails of wounded or dead animals back to their abusers. On the other hand, has that helped any considering that over 65 billion animals are used, abused, and killed for food, scientific/medical testing, military experimentation, entertainment, clothing, and breeding - as in puppy mills every year still. Many of the offences that are done are not reported so nobody has an exact number of how many animals are abused but they estimate it’s in the high billions every year.
I don’t think that the laws about animal abuse are not enforced enough. My reason being is that if the law agent’s animal abuse was being enforced then the law would not be broken daily. I think it is like robbing a bank. The laws on robbing a bank are enforced and it is so hard to do that people rarely do it. So then why do they abuse animals?
Why do some people want to do things just because someone famous does it? Animal abuse hit its high after famous NFL star Michael Vick was arrested for illegal interstate dog fighting operation in Surry County. This goes the same for Paris Hilton, Jesse James, Banksey, and Cesar Millan. After all off these people were accused the crimes for animal abuse went up.
What many do not understand is that animals fell pain just as much as a human does. They feel pain, neglect, sadness, and everything else a human can feel. What many people are taught as a child is done do things to others you do not want done to yourself. So would you like to be? And then neglected?
Research shows that many cases that involve animal abuse have also traced back to cases of family abuse, drug related crimes, rape, and even kidnap or the person was not a first defense for animal abuse. This has helped many cases of crime get solved when they are traced back to a certain crime.
When phoenix was first brought in to the animal hospital she was already all over the news, in harrowing video footage of the wounded dog, was in the nationwide newspapers, TV, on the radio newscast, and on countless websites. Everybody was asking for people to prey for the poor phoenix. An initial $1000 reward was sent out to whoever could find the culprits to the crime. This reward would soon clime to $26,000 as people around the country followed Phoenix’s struggle for life. There were many places that had ceremonies for her and even the major of Baltimore set out an Anti-Animal Abuse act to work on enforcing the law more after this horrible tragedy. So after the story of Phoenix, how do you feel about animal abuse?