Since the beginning of time, there has been a certain ‘us’ against ‘them’ attitude toward animals. In fact, any animal with visible behavioral or physical differences with other members of its specie is considered to be dangerous and is generally treated unfairly. The question is whether it is okay to make generalizations about animals based on man-made criteria and use those to form an opinion that directly affects how we treat them. Is it okay to carry out tests on them, to torture them, and even to kill them? When is it okay to strike back when put in a dan-gerous situation with an animal, if at all? In prehistoric times, human beings relied on animals for food and clothing; that was un-avoidable; they were hunted …show more content…
There are extreme cases of animal abuse every day. In England, on three different occasions, cats were cooked in microwave ovens. One of these incidents was in 2010, when a cat named Roxy was put in a microwave oven for 10 seconds, and then shoved into a laundry dryer, yanked out of it, and dunked into a bowl of water. The whole incident was filmed by two teenage boys and a middle aged man, who were sentenced for animal cruelty. Luckily, the cat survived. In 2008, a man had a falling out with a dog owner, and decided to torture the dog as an act of revenge. He and his friend took the dog to a park and recorded themselves slashing him with a knife and garden shears, amputating two of his legs, severing his nose, and then decapitating him. Reports say they laughed the whole time (Goad, Jim). Lastly, there have been videos circulating the internet showing dogs walking on their hind legs. While many people find this cute, no one knows the true story behind it. These dogs are tortured and beat up to be trained not stand on their hind legs. The videos showing them being beat up by their owners are still on the internet, but many don’t want to hear that side of the story. These incidents happen very often, but not much is done about it; people do not get more than a few months of jail time for torturing animals. Most of the time, they just get psychiatric …show more content…
Right now, millions of monkeys, rats, rabbits, cats, and dogs are locked up in cages, sitting in fear, waiting to be experimented on against their will. Many of these animals die in these experiments, after being given chemical food and drugs (https://www.peta.org). These are animals that are known to have feelings; carrying out tests on them doesn’t make it any different from testing on humans themselves. There are many non-animal test methods that could be used instead, which could be cheaper and