Facts About Animal Cruelty

1. Facts About Animal Cruelty By Juan Reyes and Nyier Ricks

2. Fact #1 • In many circuses, wild and exotic animals are trained through the use of intimidation and physical abuse. Former circus employees have reported seeing animals beaten, whipped, poked with sharp objects and even burned to force them to learn their routines!

3. Fact #2 • Elephants who perform in circuses are often kept in chains for as long as 23 hours a day from the time they are babies.

4. Fact #3 • More than 15 million warm-blooded animals are used in research every year.

5. Fact #4 • Scientists estimate that 100 species go extinct every day! That's about one species every 15 minutes.

6. Fact #5 • If you live in Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Rhode Island, Illinois, Virginia, Oregon, New York, New Jersey and Vermont you have the legal right to refuse to participate in dissection in class! In Louisiana, there is a State resolution and in Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland and New Mexico, there are Departments of Education resolutions in place that allow you to refuse to dissect, although it hasn’t yet become a law.

7. Fact #6 • Dog fighting and cock-fighting are illegal in all 50 states.

8. Fact #7 • It is estimated that on average it takes 1,000 dogs to maintain a mid-sized racetrack operation. New greyhounds are continually entering the system to replace greyhounds that grade-off due to injury, age or poor performance. There are currently over 30 tracks operating in the United States.

9. Fact #8 • Tens of thousands of wild and domesticated horses from the United States are cruelly slaughtered every year to be used for horsemeat in Europe and Asia. Since the last horse slaughter plants in the U.S. were closed in 2007, thousands of horses have been shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter.

10. Fact #9 • Many studies have found a link between cruelty to animals and other forms of interpersonal violence.

11. Fact #10 • Neglect and abandonment are the most common forms of companion animal abuse in the United States.

12. Fact #11 • A fur coat is pretty cool—for an animal to wear. Eighteen red foxes are killed to make one fox-fur coat, 55 minks to make a mink coat.

13. Fact #12 • 13% of intentional animal abuse cases involve domestic violence.

14. Fact #13 • Anti-cruelty laws exist in all U.S. states and territories to prohibit unnecessary killing, mutilating, torturing, beating, neglecting and abandoning animals, or depriving them of proper food, water or shelter. Animal cruelty cases may be investigated by a local humane society, SPCA or animal control agency or, in areas where these organizations are not present, by police or sheriff’s departments. When an investigation uncovers enough evidence to warrant prosecution, charges may be filed by the local district or state’s attorney. Often, only the most serious cases generate sufficient sympathy and evidence to warrant prosecution, and gaining convictions may be very difficult

15. Fact #14 • Anti-cruelty laws exist in all U.S. states and territories to prohibit unnecessary killing, mutilating, torturing, beating, neglecting and abandoning animals, or depriving them of proper food, water or shelter. Animal cruelty cases may be investigated by a local humane society, SPCA or animal control agency or, in areas where these organizations are not present, by police or sheriff’s departments. When an investigation uncovers enough evidence to warrant prosecution, charges may be filed by the local district or state’s attorney. Often, only the most serious cases generate sufficient sympathy and evidence to warrant prosecution, and gaining convictions may be very difficult

16. Fact #15 • 56% of dogs and 71% of cats that enter animal shelters are euthanized. More cats are euthanized than dogs because they are more likely to enter a shelter without any owner identification.

17. Fact #16 • Only 15% of dogs and 2% of cats that enter animal shelters are reunited with their owners.

18. Fact #17 • PETA also says that the behavior of the animals during the circus shows is not at all natural, in the sense that tigers don't hop around and then lay down in unison, elephants don't walk trunk to tail and female elephants don't mount each other. All this is possible only by extreme training, which may translate into extreme torture.

19. Fact #18 • In a recent report, People For Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have come out with embarrassing facts about the circus lives of animals. According to their reports, various prominent circuses do not practice what they preach and indulge in animal cruelty on a routine basis. No institute or individual looks after the training sessions of the circuses. Tight collars, whips, beatings and torture are the order of the day for the animals of the circus.

20. Fact #19 • The animals in circuses are also routinely and dangerously exposed to various diseases. In some cases, they were not provided with basic medical first aid. Tuberculosis is seen as a major disease for the elephants in circuses. Some instances show that the elephants were not treated medically for wounds inflicted during beatings and other natural causes. Circuses have known to keep a large amount of topsoil ready, to camouflage the wounds and the blood on the elephants

21. Fact #20 • Some elephants have also suffered from lameness, arthritis and food abscesses. Elephant deaths in circuses are commonly caused due to osteoporosis. Elephants suffer from Osteoporosis simply because they do not have wide spaces to move around. Due to the inhumane treatments, it has been proved that circus animals are dying at a higher rate than they are breeding.

22. Fact #21 • Possibly, the worst case of animal cruelty in film is the movie, 'Cannibal Holocaust'. Though the movie waded in troubled waters ever since it was released, it was proven than at least six animals, a muskrat, a pig, a monkey, a snake, a turtle and a large spider were killed for the sake of the film. It has been said that the scene depicting the monkey had to shot twice, and therefore, two monkeys were sacrificed for movie realism.