History Of Animal Cruelty

A house pet, such as a dog or cat, is one of the only living creatures capable of loving its owner, more than it loves itself. As their owners and companions, it is the human’s job to protect and care for them. Yet, everyday millions of these innocent animals are abused and mistreated, and everyday millions of people are getting away with this cruelty because of the lenient laws against it. In 2013, there were a total of 1,880 animal cruelty cases were reported in the state of Texas. Of those animals 1,212 were dogs, 337 were cats, and 470 were other animals including livestock animals (Animal Cruelty Facts and Statistics). If a person can go to prison for child abuse, then why shouldn’t he get the same penalty for animal cruelty. The news
That night the Longview police department received an anonymous tip saying a woman heard shouting and an animal yelping from the Shafer residence. When they arrived, they were met with a large amount of blood on the walls. The blood belonged to the family pet. After the arrest, the investigators could not find the dog’s body, so he was charged only with aggravated assault family violence. However, even after they found the dogs body, they had no proof that Shafer killed the animal, so he was never sentence with animal cruelty, but was found guilty for aggravated assault family violence with a deadly weapon and got the maximum penalty in the state prison with no chance of parole. Because the Texas law says there has to be solid evidence of animal cruelty in order to be charged, Scott Shafer got away with it. (Top 5 Animal Cruelty Cases for 2006 in
Then in November, when the dog was fully grown, she took the dog back to the shelter to get put down. This is when the veterinarian realized that the dog had parts of bone exposed on all four of her legs, and that one is slowly rotting off her body. Martinez was arrested on November 8 for animal cruelty, and when she went to court she told the jury that she had “over-committed herself to work and non-profit organizations and had never expected the dog to get as big as she did” (Chen ABC News). Because of her neglect, the dog lost its leg and later had to be put down due to the extensive rot that had started to spread throughout her entire body. Rosa Martinez, lost her job and given a $3,000 fine, but never saw any jail time (Chen ABC