What Is The Cost Of A Dollar Essay

The Cost of a Dollar: Is It Worth an Animal’s Life
Animals have been suffering by the hands of humans for decades. The Urban Dictionary defines animal cruelty as any human infliction of suffering or harming upon non-human animals, for purposes other than self-defense or survival. This means that their basic needs of survival have not been met and/or being beaten for no reason. When animal cruelty comes to mind, one doesn’t atomically think places such as zoos, aquariums, circuses or even SeaWorld as animal abusers because they claim to stand for animal conservation, and help donate to prominent organizations to save them, but they are the biggest animal abusers that one will ever meet.
It is hard to believe that prominent places, such as SeaWorld are capable of harming an animal, but unfortunately, I have seen and
witnessed animal abuse even at prominent places such as these.
Have you ever been to a zoo or an aquarium and noticed the very small, tiny enclosures? This is a form of animal abuse. Zoos, aquariums, and etc., cannot provide the proper space needed for an animal to survive. For example, an orca whale can swim up to hundreds of miles a day. They have to keep moving to survive, and cannot just” stop swimming”.
That little tank that holds five of these magnificent creatures just isn’t cutting it. The space is not sufficient for one orca, so how is it suitable for five?!
Every time a zoo or aquarium demands for an animal to perform this is considered animal abuse. One maybe thinking how is it animal abuse when the animal is willing preforming on his/her own accord? I didn’t see them hit the animal or hurt it in any way possible. They even gave a speech on how they ask an animal if it is ok for them to preform a trick. It is not what one can see. It is about what they cannot see, which is going on behind the scenes. Just like when one is training a dog, how does one get them to do the command given? They give them a treat to reinforce positive behavior. This means that one uses food as leverage so one can get the animal to do what they want. Circuses, zoos, aquariums, and etc., are using the same technique to train their animals, but they have taken it to the extreme. The movie Blackfish tells of the hidden secret of training that they do not want the general public to know about. When the training process
begins for a new animal, the trainer takes a veteran animal, who know the routine down pat, to show the new animal what to do. After the veteran animal preforms the command flawlessly, they are rewarded with food for good behavior. This teaches the animal that if they do what is asked of them, then they will be fed. Just like a new puppy, the new animal doesn’t always catch on quickly and since they don’t do what their told, they don’t receive the treat. Well, what is the harm in that? If the animal didn’t do what it was supposed to, it shouldn’t be rewarded for good behavior? Technically this is correct, but what they are not telling the public is that they don’t even get fed that night because if they do, they are claiming to reward bad behavior. They take it another extreme father. Not only do they do not feed the animal being trained, they do not feed the veteran animal as well. The reason behind it is that when the veteran animal gets hungry enough for food, they will get agitated. They will inflict harm on the other animal until the other animal can perform the trick to the trainer’s liking. This is just like when one has a weak teammate, who isn’t fast enough. The whole team has to suffer and run until the weakling gets faster and completes the task to the coach’s liking. This practice also can go on for days where they are starved until they can perform the trick flawlessly
Also, animals in captivity do not live as long as they would in the wild due to the stressful conditions they are forced to live in. Zoos and aquariums might say otherwise, but they are lying through their teeth. It has been tested and proven true that animals, who live in the wild live way longer than the ones in captivity.
An argument might be made that zoo and aquarium workers love animals, so why would they work at places that abuse these animal like I claim? Well, the answer is simple. At first, they have that same mentality, until they find out and see what happens behind the scenes. By the time that happens, they don’t want to quit because if they do, then they cannot at least attempt to help the animals. An example of this would be sneaking extra food to animal or not preforming the punishment for bad behavior.
So what do we do about it? How do we save these beautiful creatures? I have assessed the situation and propose a solution. They can set the animals free back into the wild (it has been done before, even if the animal was born domesticated and it has been successful) and only keep the animals that cannot physically survive on their own in the wild. For example, the movie Dolphin Tale tells the true story of a dolphin who gets a prosthetic tale to survive. This dolphin’s only chance of survival is captivity.
Unfortunately, the people who own these “animal prions” will never release their money makers and honestly don’t really care about their health and wellbeing. If an animal dies, they are just being replaced. The only way we can stop this horrendous act of abuse is to stand together. We have to stop purchasing that ticket. We have to stop giving these people what they want, which is monetary gain. We have to protest and be the voices for these animals because they don’t have a voice. So now one has to make a decision. Are you for animal abusers or you against? Is the price of a dollar worth the life of a magnificent animal, whose only wish to live free like they were intended?