Most of us are familiar with the topic of human abuse but do you know that an animal suffers cruelty on a regular basis too. Yes, animal abuse or animal cruelty means harming an innocent animal for various purposes.
Remember harming an animal for self defense is not considered as cruelty but inflicting pain on them for your selfish gains is considered as animal abuse and countries are taking preventive measures to make sure it gets stopped. When you think of the term animal abuse, you think of an animal getting beaten by someone. But there is much more to it. A detailed look at these facts about animal abuse and you will get a better idea of what I am talking about.
Did you know that most states don't consider animal beating, hunting and animal testing illegal. Technically all these activities are considered as animal abuse. Activities like leaving your pets out in the rain and tying them inside or outside their houses. Even kicking your pets is considered as animal abuse. Remember you should breed your pets inside your house and never make them sleep outdoors in the cold or rain. Have a fenced yard in your back lawn for their fun time but don't consider that yard as their home.
Facts about Animal Abuse and Cruelty
To have a better understanding of what I am trying to say, here's a list of facts about animal cruelty which will shed some light on this serious topic.
- Animal traps often kill animals which are not its targets like pet dogs and cats.
- Each year more than 9 billion chickens are raised and killed for meat in the US and more than a billion animals are killed for making leather products.
- Most of us love watching bull fights. But do you know that more than 10,000 bulls die in bull fights.
- Young ones of goats are burned alive to make high quality hand gloves.
- Elephants who provide you entertainment in circus shows are tied with chains for more than 14 hours a day. These animals live this prisoner lifestyle since they are born.
- Dog fighting and cock fighting are illegal in all 50 states of the United States. Dogs who lose or can't fight are often abandoned, tortured, set on fire, or beaten to death.
- One of the most strangest facts about animal abuse is that in 20% of animal abuse cases domestic violence is involved.
- More than 15 million warm blooded animals are used in research every year.
- Cows are milked extensively to fulfill the desires of the human population. Because of this their calves can't get enough milk for their proper nutrition and growth.
- Glue traps cause terror and agony in animals which causes them to suffer for many months.
- Every year more than 50,000 seals are killed for their skin which is considered as a luxurious fashion item by the rich and famous.
- A weird animal fact is that women who get beaten by their partners often complain that their husbands threatened to kill their pets. Even children who witness domestic violence at a young age have a tendency to take their anger out on their pets.
- Due to the large consumption of horse meat in Europe and Asia, every year thousands of horses are slaughtered.
- To test the effect of perfumes, cleaners and various other cosmetics every year millions of animals are killed, injured or blinded.
- A very cruel animal cruelty fact, a slaughter house kills more than 2000 animals every hour.
- More than 5 billion tax dollars are invested in animal experiments every year.
- More than 3 million kangaroos are killed every year. Their skin is considered as the prime material for soccer shoes.
Some Quotes To Muse On
To most of us, animal abuse means violence or neglect perpetrated towards an animal. However, why do people abuse animals? the answer being that, humans, have found numerous ways to torture animals, and justify most of them as necessary for the procurement of food, or, to further science and commerce. The most disturbing crimes against animal are the ones carried out for fashion, sport or pleasure, such as dog fighting, cockfighting or canned hunting. Those done in the name of commerce, from branding to force feeding (as is done to ducks to prepare foie gras) are no less cruel.
As a race, those who recognize cruelty and raise their voice against it are our saving grace. Here are some animal abuse quotes from some such individuals, that illustrate the significance of allowing and perpetrating acts of violence towards animals. There are also some animal welfare quotes included.
Animal Abuse Quotes
"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages." - Thomas Edison, (American Inventor and Scientist)
"Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man." - Arthur Schopenhauer, (German Philosopher)
"We have enslaved the rest of animal creation and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form." - William Ralph Inge, (British Author)
"For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love." - Pythagoras, (Pre-Socratic Greek Philosopher)
"Show me the enforced laws of a state for the prevention of cruelty to animals and I in turn will give you a correct estimate of the refinement, enlightenment, integrity and equity of that commonwealth's people." - L.T. Danshiell, (Animal Rights Advocate)
"He who harms animals has not understood or renounced deeds of sin ... Those whose minds are at peace and who are free from passions do not desire to live at the expense of others." - from Acharanga Sutra (Jainism - Non-Vedic Religion of Old India)
"The awful wrongs and sufferings forced upon the innocent, helpless, faithful animal race form the blackest chapter in the whole world's history." - Edward Freeman, (English Historian and Commentator)
"Nothing living should ever be treated with contempt. Whatever it is that lives, a man, a tree, or a bird, should be touched gently, because the time is short. Civilization is another word for respect for life...." - Elizabeth Goudge, (author of The Joy of the Snow)
"I hope to make people realize how totally helpless animals are, how dependent on us, trusting as a child must that we will be kind and take care of their needs ...[they] are an obligation put on us, a responsibility we have no right to neglect, nor to violate by cruelty." - James Herriot, (English Veterinarian and Author)
"As custodians of the planet it is our responsibility to deal with all species with kindness, love, and compassion. That these animals suffer through human cruelty is beyond understanding. Please help to stop this madness." - Richard Gere, (American Actor)
"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, splendour, and nobility, cannot obliterate. It is consistent neither with learning nor true civility." - William Jones, (English Philologist and Jurist)
"Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives." - Albert Schweitzer, (Alsatian Theologian, Musician, and Medical Missionary)
"To inflict cruelties on defenceless creatures, or condone such acts, is to abuse one of the cardinal tenets of a civilised society - reverence for life." - Dr. Jon Evans
"Our treatment of animals is important to our own internal state. If we are to expand our horizons, to grow to understand what the relatedness of each and every thing means, then our love and appreciation of all life is essential. Our respect and reverence for all living things will be reflected in our own living." - Bill Schul, (Author of The Psychic Power of Animals)
"If a man aspires toward a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals." - Count Leo Tolstoy, (Russian Novelist and Philosopher)
"Our treatment of animals will someday be considered barbarous. There cannot be perfect civilization until man realizes that the rights of every living creature are as sacred as his own." - Dr. David Starr Jordan, (American Biologist and Educator)
"We cannot have peace among men whose hearts find delight in killing any living creature." - Rachel Carson, (American Author and Marine Biologist)
"We cannot glimpse the essential life of a caged animal, only the shadow of its former beauty." - Julia Allen Field
"I have always felt that the way we treat animals is a pretty good indicator of the compassion we are capable of for the human race." - Ali McGraw, (American Actress)
"The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men." - Leonardo Da Vinci, (Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Musician, Engineer, and Scientist)
"Murderers ... very often start out by killing and torturing animals as kids." - Robert K. Ressler, (Former FBI Serial Killer Profiler)
"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men..." - St. Francis of Assisi, (Roman Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans Order)
"These birds and animals and fish cannot speak, but they can suffer, and our God who created them, knows their sufferings, and will hold him who causes them to suffer unnecessarily to answer for it. It is a sin against their Creator." - George Q. Cannon, (Animal Activist)
Animal Rights Quotes
"Human liberation will begin when we understand that our evolution and fulfillment are contingent on the recognition of animal rights and on a compassionate and responsible stewardship of nature." - Dr. Michael W. Fox, (Animal Activist)
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." - Mahatma Gandhi, (Indian Statesman and Philosopher)
"True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it." - Milan Kundera, (Czech Novelist)
"Most people have forgotten how to live with living creatures, with living systems and that, in turn, is the reason why man, whenever he comes into contact with nature, threatens to kill the natural system in which and from which he lives." - Konrad Lorenz, (Naturalist)
"Life is life's greatest gift. Guard the life of another creature as you would your own because it is your own. On life's scale of values, the smallest is no less precious to the creature who owns it than the largest..." - Lloyd Biggle Jr.
Quotes About Animal Testing
"Atrocities are no less atrocities when they occur in laboratories and are called 'medical research." - George Bernard Shaw, (Irish Playright and Critic)
"It is totally unconscionable to subject defenseless animals to mutilation and death, just so a company can be the first to market a new shade of nail polish or a new, improved laundry detergent...It's cruel, it's brutal, it's inhumane, and most people don't want it." - Abigail 'Dear Abby' Van Buren Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in support of the Consumer Products Safe Testing Act, March 1988
"It seems to me of great importance to teach children respect for life. Towards this end, experiments on living animals in classrooms should be stopped. To encourage cruelty in the name of science can only destroy the finer emotions of affection and sympathy, and breed an unfeeling callousness in the young towards suffering in all living creatures." - Eleanor Roosevelt, (former First Lady of the United States of America)
"Every year tens of thousands of animals suffer and die in laboratory tests of cosmetics and household products...despite the fact that the test results do not help prevent or treat accidental or purposeful misuse of the products. Please join me in using your voice for those whose cries are forever sealed behind the laboratory doors." - Woody Harrelson, (Actor)
"I abhor vivisection. It should at least be curbed. Better, it should be abolished. I know of no achievement through vivisection, no scientific discovery, that could not have been obtained without such barbarism and cruelty. The whole thing is evil." - Dr. Charles Mayo, (Founder of the Mayo Clinic)
The final Curious © phrase:
“Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason”
(Oscar Wilde)
