Animal Cruelty In America
Animal rights are essential because in many ways they are just like humans, they are proven to have emotions and have families just like us, therefore it is unethical to abuse the animals in ways that we know is not right to do for humans. Due to animals having limited to no rights, it’s our duty to make a change and make people and schools aware of animal cruelty. Citizens of the United States have the ability of Freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition. With that kind of power, we the people can make a difference or change for the better. However, there are limits and boundaries to the First Amendment. In 1906 a very controversial book sparked America; The Jungle. During this time when the First Amendment was put to use,
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journalist like Upton Sinclair, the author of The Jungle, were called mukrackers, which were journalist who exposed corruption in the government and huge businesses. The Jungle had fictional characters portraying the harsh meat packing industry. Readers around the nation were disturbed about the risk of health violations and the unsanitary practices of the animals in the meat packing industry. "I aimed at the public's heart," Sinclair said, "and by accident I hit it in the stomach." In Kevin Mattson’s article “Upton Sinclair and the other American Century.” Sinclair wanted readers to beware of the horrible cruelty that was happening to these animals. Being hung upside down, still having a heartbeat. Watching yourself being torn apart and having every single piece of meat being ripped off your body. After the release of The Jungle, the president Theodore Roosevelt presented the federal “Food Laws,“Federal Food and Drug Administration,” the FDA. Roosevelt did become a vegetarian after reading the book and was repulsed of the animal cruelty and the lack of cleanliness. Today, in many countries around the world, The Jungle is banned, according to the American Library Association. Much like Upton Sinclair, a teacher Keith Allison was sharing his personal beliefs about animal rights. Allison writes on his Facebook about the treatment of dairy farm animals and was encouraging people to drink “plant-based milk.” After a local farm owner found this, he reported it to the school, even though there was no information about what dairy farm Allison was talking about. The Green Local School later removed Allison as a teacher. With the First Amendment in mind, there are a few things you cannot say. You cannot give threats without being punished. Nowhere in Allison’s Facebook status, was he threatening people. He was showing compassion towards the animals, in his personal time, and on his own computer. Although I feel like these animals causes should be promoted in the classroom, Allison did not inform his classroom of his opinions and ideas. However, teachers, like American citizens do have a First Amendment right to engage how he feels. Vegan or not, you have to applaud Allison for his compassion and big heart for standing up and protecting the animals. “We need more, not less, love and kindness in this world-especially in our schools,” Jeff Hirst says in his petition on Change.org. America is a very fortunate country to be able to have the freedom of speech and petition. Most countries in Asia and Europe do not have this ability. In a recent film The Cove, is about the animal’s rights issue in Japan. Since the film was released, the people of Japan have learned the awful secret taken place in one of their cities. The country of Japan have banned the film from their country to make sure the Japanese do not fight back. As Americans we can make a difference and make people aware of this issue. On the coast of the Pacific Ocean of Japan, is a small city called Taiji. This little town has a huge secret. Taiji is known for its traditional hunting techniques. Every year, from September to May, about 2,000 dolphins are captured and slaughtered annually according to Louis Psihoyos documentary, The Cove. “This traditional dolphin hunt provides income for the local fishermen and local residents,” Says Minoru Matsutani in his article “Details on how Japan’s dolphin catches work.” About 10% of the dolphins held captive are then sold to aquariums around the world. The other 90%? They are to be slaughtered. The dolphins are chased into the cove by boats and are then netted in. After three to four days of being captured without food, they are then inspected to be sold or slaughtered. Lastly they bring in smaller boats filled with men who then stab and kill the rest of the dolphins. According to the local fishermen they do this for “pest control.” If you are selling 10% of these dolphins why are we killing the other 90%? We as the humans who are slaughtering thousands of animals daily for our benefit, are the pest. According to the National Geographic website on Overfishing says “Many parts of the world’s oceans are being overfished and polluted.” At this rate, within 50 years, sharks, tuna fish, swordfish, and even dolphins can become extinct along with many more species. With the excess amount of dolphins, they sell them to local fish markets to be sold. The problem with this is that dolphin meat contain very high levels of mercury which is toxic to the human body. The Japanese people do not purposely buy dolphin meat. “The fish packing industries often mislabel the dolphin meat and people are being poisoned without knowing and consent,” claims Eric Johnston in his article of “Mercury Dangers in Dolphin Meat.” Too much mercury poisoning can lead to a deathly disease called Minimata Disease, which is only familiar in Japan, because their main protein is fish. Minimata disease has the ability to make you paralyzed, loss of vision and hearing, and extreme cases, death. In 1956, the disease was discovered. There was such a spread that Japan made a hospital for Minimata diseased only. Although this issue is taking place in Japan, the entire world is helping making this happen. Places like Denmark, Peru, and Taiwan also follow this practice. What can we do to prevent this? At the heart of this operations in the aquatic parks that are all over the world. With Japan capturing these dolphins, Sea parks are dying to get their hands on them. According to the OPS, Oceanic Preservation Society says an average dolphin costs $200,000, not including the air fare. If we were stop attending these aquatic parks, for example SeaWorld, they would not make enough money to buy these intelligent mammals and able to fly them to their new enclosures. Airlines such as United Airlines, Delta Airlines, Japan Airline, Air China, and even FedEx and UPS transport these mammals. If the dolphins are captured by Japan and there is no one to buy and transport these mammals, would Japan continue to capture these dolphins annually? No, the need for the dolphins would decrease immensely. Many air-cargo carriers are joining a “green list” to prevent and stop the inhumane methods of the slaughterings and transportations of these mammals. The most recent effort is a petition at Change.org by the anti-captivity group, Freedom Blue. It calls on all carriers to, “Make the skies ‘dolphin-safe’- stop the carriage of cetaceans to marine parks.” In Jessica Milburn petition “Stop Transporting Live Dolphins,” she says “It has come to our attention that your company engages in the transportation of live dolphins in your Lorries in Japan. In doing this you are explicitly condoning the terrible hunting, killing, capturing, training, transporting, and the misery of a life in confinement for dolphins.” With the help from the First Amendment we are able to help stop these mass slaughterings taking place in Japan. The First Amendment is a powerful thing, able to change things worldwide by being able to express ourselves through speech, assembly, and petition. There are so many solutions. We can eat less meat or becoming vegan/vegetarian. We can encourage others to help, make this more and more of a topic we teach the youth. With the freedom to assemble, we can protest and have rallies. We can make people more aware of animal testing. There are so many ways we can prevent animal cruelty. I think that informing children in young grades that animal cruelty is inhumane. These children are our future and having them learn at a young age can help encourage them to fight for animals rights. Teaching this at a young age can even prevent children from committing animal cruelty themselves. “Animal abusers are five times more likely to commit violent crimes against people. Deviant behaviors such as animal abuse generally originate from a traumatic childhood,” According to the CFAWR program.
The problem is our society.
Wanting to be in denial of the animal cruelty taking place all over the world. We need to let the animals have the right to life, we need to protect their rights and from suffering. We are creating a world that is saying “it’s okay to murder it, it’s just an animal.” It’s inhumane. With the power we have we are to take action. We are able to spread and inspire our influences all over the world. People around the United States tend to want to be in denial of this animal cruelty issue. Many people aren’t aware of animal testing, animal farms, and meat packing industries. Many people who are told of the issue simply say “I don’t want to know.” Spreading awareness is very important. We share this earth with nature, and we were not the first to be on this planet, therefore this world is not ours. Daily we see news and articles on issues that do not affect us like the Kardashians, Iphone’s, and Celebrities. But are you aware we are destroying our world? We are destroying world’s biggest forest. The Amazon is being torn down for the wood daily, destroying homes of the people and the thousands of species that claimed the forest their home. Many species going endangered or extinct because the need for wood is so “important.” When will our society see, that we are destroying our home so rapidly, that our future does not last much
longer?
Animal hunting has been practiced for centuries and continues today. Humans do have the right to use animals for some purposes, but I do believe there are more ethical and humane ways to treat these animals better. Most animal activist do believe we can eat animals, but that is the only reason for animals to be used. Testing on animals should be banned, dissecting in schools should be prohibited, and animals for entrainment, such as zoo’s and animal parks should be prohibited as well. Our laws do nothing to prevent animals from suffering. The reason people have rights is for unjust suffering and animal activist want the same rights for animals.
It is important for animals to have rights. In reality animals are like human toddlers. They have feelings, they have a family, and they can’t talk. But because they cannot talk, we can be able to take their rights away? We can breed them without their consent, we can decide whether they sleep out or inside, be able to decide whether they can either be dinner or live out their life? People are absolutely cruel. Having the power to take a life away. Animals were not put on this Earth to be mistreated, and people were not put on this Earth to think we are superior. They have a soul, a life, and deserve a life. We cannot bully what can’t defend itself.
journalist like Upton Sinclair, the author of The Jungle, were called mukrackers, which were journalist who exposed corruption in the government and huge businesses. The Jungle had fictional characters portraying the harsh meat packing industry. Readers around the nation were disturbed about the risk of health violations and the unsanitary practices of the animals in the meat packing industry. "I aimed at the public's heart," Sinclair said, "and by accident I hit it in the stomach." In Kevin Mattson’s article “Upton Sinclair and the other American Century.” Sinclair wanted readers to beware of the horrible cruelty that was happening to these animals. Being hung upside down, still having a heartbeat. Watching yourself being torn apart and having every single piece of meat being ripped off your body. After the release of The Jungle, the president Theodore Roosevelt presented the federal “Food Laws,“Federal Food and Drug Administration,” the FDA. Roosevelt did become a vegetarian after reading the book and was repulsed of the animal cruelty and the lack of cleanliness. Today, in many countries around the world, The Jungle is banned, according to the American Library Association. Much like Upton Sinclair, a teacher Keith Allison was sharing his personal beliefs about animal rights. Allison writes on his Facebook about the treatment of dairy farm animals and was encouraging people to drink “plant-based milk.” After a local farm owner found this, he reported it to the school, even though there was no information about what dairy farm Allison was talking about. The Green Local School later removed Allison as a teacher. With the First Amendment in mind, there are a few things you cannot say. You cannot give threats without being punished. Nowhere in Allison’s Facebook status, was he threatening people. He was showing compassion towards the animals, in his personal time, and on his own computer. Although I feel like these animals causes should be promoted in the classroom, Allison did not inform his classroom of his opinions and ideas. However, teachers, like American citizens do have a First Amendment right to engage how he feels. Vegan or not, you have to applaud Allison for his compassion and big heart for standing up and protecting the animals. “We need more, not less, love and kindness in this world-especially in our schools,” Jeff Hirst says in his petition on Change.org. America is a very fortunate country to be able to have the freedom of speech and petition. Most countries in Asia and Europe do not have this ability. In a recent film The Cove, is about the animal’s rights issue in Japan. Since the film was released, the people of Japan have learned the awful secret taken place in one of their cities. The country of Japan have banned the film from their country to make sure the Japanese do not fight back. As Americans we can make a difference and make people aware of this issue. On the coast of the Pacific Ocean of Japan, is a small city called Taiji. This little town has a huge secret. Taiji is known for its traditional hunting techniques. Every year, from September to May, about 2,000 dolphins are captured and slaughtered annually according to Louis Psihoyos documentary, The Cove. “This traditional dolphin hunt provides income for the local fishermen and local residents,” Says Minoru Matsutani in his article “Details on how Japan’s dolphin catches work.” About 10% of the dolphins held captive are then sold to aquariums around the world. The other 90%? They are to be slaughtered. The dolphins are chased into the cove by boats and are then netted in. After three to four days of being captured without food, they are then inspected to be sold or slaughtered. Lastly they bring in smaller boats filled with men who then stab and kill the rest of the dolphins. According to the local fishermen they do this for “pest control.” If you are selling 10% of these dolphins why are we killing the other 90%? We as the humans who are slaughtering thousands of animals daily for our benefit, are the pest. According to the National Geographic website on Overfishing says “Many parts of the world’s oceans are being overfished and polluted.” At this rate, within 50 years, sharks, tuna fish, swordfish, and even dolphins can become extinct along with many more species. With the excess amount of dolphins, they sell them to local fish markets to be sold. The problem with this is that dolphin meat contain very high levels of mercury which is toxic to the human body. The Japanese people do not purposely buy dolphin meat. “The fish packing industries often mislabel the dolphin meat and people are being poisoned without knowing and consent,” claims Eric Johnston in his article of “Mercury Dangers in Dolphin Meat.” Too much mercury poisoning can lead to a deathly disease called Minimata Disease, which is only familiar in Japan, because their main protein is fish. Minimata disease has the ability to make you paralyzed, loss of vision and hearing, and extreme cases, death. In 1956, the disease was discovered. There was such a spread that Japan made a hospital for Minimata diseased only. Although this issue is taking place in Japan, the entire world is helping making this happen. Places like Denmark, Peru, and Taiwan also follow this practice. What can we do to prevent this? At the heart of this operations in the aquatic parks that are all over the world. With Japan capturing these dolphins, Sea parks are dying to get their hands on them. According to the OPS, Oceanic Preservation Society says an average dolphin costs $200,000, not including the air fare. If we were stop attending these aquatic parks, for example SeaWorld, they would not make enough money to buy these intelligent mammals and able to fly them to their new enclosures. Airlines such as United Airlines, Delta Airlines, Japan Airline, Air China, and even FedEx and UPS transport these mammals. If the dolphins are captured by Japan and there is no one to buy and transport these mammals, would Japan continue to capture these dolphins annually? No, the need for the dolphins would decrease immensely. Many air-cargo carriers are joining a “green list” to prevent and stop the inhumane methods of the slaughterings and transportations of these mammals. The most recent effort is a petition at Change.org by the anti-captivity group, Freedom Blue. It calls on all carriers to, “Make the skies ‘dolphin-safe’- stop the carriage of cetaceans to marine parks.” In Jessica Milburn petition “Stop Transporting Live Dolphins,” she says “It has come to our attention that your company engages in the transportation of live dolphins in your Lorries in Japan. In doing this you are explicitly condoning the terrible hunting, killing, capturing, training, transporting, and the misery of a life in confinement for dolphins.” With the help from the First Amendment we are able to help stop these mass slaughterings taking place in Japan. The First Amendment is a powerful thing, able to change things worldwide by being able to express ourselves through speech, assembly, and petition. There are so many solutions. We can eat less meat or becoming vegan/vegetarian. We can encourage others to help, make this more and more of a topic we teach the youth. With the freedom to assemble, we can protest and have rallies. We can make people more aware of animal testing. There are so many ways we can prevent animal cruelty. I think that informing children in young grades that animal cruelty is inhumane. These children are our future and having them learn at a young age can help encourage them to fight for animals rights. Teaching this at a young age can even prevent children from committing animal cruelty themselves. “Animal abusers are five times more likely to commit violent crimes against people. Deviant behaviors such as animal abuse generally originate from a traumatic childhood,” According to the CFAWR program.
The problem is our society.
Wanting to be in denial of the animal cruelty taking place all over the world. We need to let the animals have the right to life, we need to protect their rights and from suffering. We are creating a world that is saying “it’s okay to murder it, it’s just an animal.” It’s inhumane. With the power we have we are to take action. We are able to spread and inspire our influences all over the world. People around the United States tend to want to be in denial of this animal cruelty issue. Many people aren’t aware of animal testing, animal farms, and meat packing industries. Many people who are told of the issue simply say “I don’t want to know.” Spreading awareness is very important. We share this earth with nature, and we were not the first to be on this planet, therefore this world is not ours. Daily we see news and articles on issues that do not affect us like the Kardashians, Iphone’s, and Celebrities. But are you aware we are destroying our world? We are destroying world’s biggest forest. The Amazon is being torn down for the wood daily, destroying homes of the people and the thousands of species that claimed the forest their home. Many species going endangered or extinct because the need for wood is so “important.” When will our society see, that we are destroying our home so rapidly, that our future does not last much
longer?
Animal hunting has been practiced for centuries and continues today. Humans do have the right to use animals for some purposes, but I do believe there are more ethical and humane ways to treat these animals better. Most animal activist do believe we can eat animals, but that is the only reason for animals to be used. Testing on animals should be banned, dissecting in schools should be prohibited, and animals for entrainment, such as zoo’s and animal parks should be prohibited as well. Our laws do nothing to prevent animals from suffering. The reason people have rights is for unjust suffering and animal activist want the same rights for animals.
It is important for animals to have rights. In reality animals are like human toddlers. They have feelings, they have a family, and they can’t talk. But because they cannot talk, we can be able to take their rights away? We can breed them without their consent, we can decide whether they sleep out or inside, be able to decide whether they can either be dinner or live out their life? People are absolutely cruel. Having the power to take a life away. Animals were not put on this Earth to be mistreated, and people were not put on this Earth to think we are superior. They have a soul, a life, and deserve a life. We cannot bully what can’t defend itself.