Animal cruelty happens every sixty seconds and effects all types of animals. This is known as individuals improperly taking care of an animal and physically abusing them. Laws have been proposed about abusing any such kind of animal, but are not as strict as individuals would like them to be. To improve the treatment of any sort of animal abuse, it is necessary for the abuse to become a felony with higher charges and bail time, though in some states charge just for misdemeanor.
Animal cruelty and their current laws have become a worldwide problem with big organizations getting away with the cruelty, the legislation in place now is not as harsh, and animals being used for fighting. Certain organizations and circuses are known to mistreat animals. The most common animal cruelty performed are at circuses and zoos. Wild animals and others as such, are taken away from their natural habitat and are being used for uncomfortable tricks for human entertainment at circuses or zoos.
The suffering from the drastic change in the climate leads the animals into becoming less secure about their safety and environment. Inappropriate shelters, transportation conditions, and countless beatings are what is happening behind the scenes of the traveling place to place for a show. These organizations are physically punishing the animals, though this usually is hidden from the public view. Limitless harmful acts are being done behind the curtains.
The Ringling Brother Circus is now banned, Hangzhou Zoo is not charged for abusing a tiger on during a show, and “A Dog’s Purpose” movie premier now cancelled due to abuse as well. The Ringling Brother Circus which is also called “The Greatest Show on Earth” started in 1919, the show was the world’s most prized entertainment to see. In recent years, the show has been to known to treat the elephants and animals poorly to where there not comfortable with their surroundings. So as of this current year, they are closing and will end the tour in May of the year 2017 due to the mistreatment.
There have been several groups that have criticized and sued the Ringling Brother’s for abusing of the animals, then after the criticism “animal rights group, PETA, spent years petitioning against the treatment of circus animals” (Marco & Ansari). Tickets sales started declining after the breakthrough with the news media stating the Ringling Brothers were mistreating the animals. The elephants were the main ones getting the mistreatment, therefore they retired the elephants, decreasing the time of their show.
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) took credit for the closing of the show stating “of documenting animals left to die, beaten animals, and much more, has reduced attendance to the point of no return. ” (Krayden). The Ringling Bros. blames that the ongoing battles with the animal rights group is the primary cause of the closure. Individuals are not aware about what goes on behind zoos, there are different varieties of zoos who mistreat and neglect animals. Animals are also not even capable of surviving in small closures and unhealthy habits from the environment.
Certain zoos put on performances to show the audience how smart and powerful the animals they are, but also behind the curtain is a neglect from disobeying. An organization that was abusing an animal is the Hangzhou Zoo. While performing one of their shows, a white tiger was beaten with a whip several times while trying to snag the whip away from numerously being whipped by the trainer. The white tiger then slipped into the surrounding pool and had struggles of getting out with no help, leaving a bloody wound on the nose.
After the footage was postage, the zoo department issued a statement stating the denying of the abuse. The viewers all wanted the zoo “to be shut down and for its workers to be punished” (Linder). Without no penalty or fine, the Zhejiang Forestry Administration banned all animal performances. One movie advertisement that has been blowing individuals away has some down spiral with it. The movie “A Dog’s Purpose” is based off of a 2010 novel, is about a dog continuously being reincarnated as multiple canines over five decades.
The movies premiere got canceled due to a release of a video that happens to be of one of their dog’s being forced to go into a churning pool of water and then drowning under while trying to get out. With the video going viral throughout the United States, there was no fine or penalty given from this situation. After the tragic video was uploaded, the organization PETA called for a boycott of the movie. Then also told the movie crew to “to promise to never work with animals again and to rescue the dogs from Birds & Animals Unlimited” (Walker).
Comments were made about the video while wanting the producers and such to be fined due to the crucial seen of the video. Forcefully pushing a dog into churning water needs some sort of punishment. Laws have been proposed about animal cruelty, some being harsh while others are not. Individuals are on a hunt to get animal cruelty laws stricter. The legislation for this law varies from state to state. Debates have been promptly brought up saying that animals have the same amount of rights as humans do. The current laws today are not as strict as others would like them to be.
The laws today have people still in debate about changing them or making them stricter because the only current punishments are just being convicted of a felony or charged with misdemeanor, with a couple of fines and charges with them. If you violently abuse or poorly treat an animal of any kind, the individual will know to be classified as a misdemeanor. With conviction of a misdemeanor for animal cruelty, charges are usually fined between $1000-$5000 and jail time for a year. Usually individuals are charged with a class one misdemeanor, up to a felony.
Though there are debates about raising animal cruelty punishments, there are “cases of animal cruelty often end with the imposition of a paltry fine” (McNutt). Animal cruelty should be classified as a criminal offense, due to the fact that it is an abuse of a living kind, not just felony either. Another conviction of this cruelty is being convicted of a felony. This law is similar to a misdemeanor but is more punishable. With a felony, the fines are usually a couple thousand with jail time of one year.
If the individual has tortured, willfully inflicts inhumane injury or pain to an animal, the person will only be convicted of a class 6 felony. A 6 class felony loses all rights to vote, three years without any pet, taken driver license, and etc. This is highest level of a felony, however, these laws are starting to become increasingly stricter. There are some states charging animal abuse as a felony, but some states only are not as strong as a felony. It has been said that Iowa has the strictest animal abuse law, and with Ohio being one of the toughest. All states have animal cruelty provisions.
The latest law and bill proposed about animal cruelty was in January of 2017. Michigan Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley sign two law House Bills 4353 and 4355, which is two of four bills in the legislative package. This law exempts convicted people of adopting an animal with the Michigan State Police Internet Criminal History Access Tool having to search history records for individuals before an adoption. This law was projected after a severe incident with a Siberian husky. Logan, the Siberian husky, was victimized by an unknown abuser. The unknown abuser threw battery acid on the Logan’s face while sleeping outside in the kennel.
Logan lost his eyesight and suffered serious burns. After Logan passed away, the owners spearheaded the new legislation of keeping adoption out of the hands of convicted animal abusers. Though this law has been passed in Michigan, other states are not coming aware of proposing new laws or bills. With this tragedy, laws and bills are still trying to be proposed, but always opposed. This process in general, makes changing laws harder. Another illegal underground activity that has individuals wanting stricter laws are animal fighting. Animal fighting consist of human entertainment, as some are just used for bait.
Any sort of organized animal fighting is usually in a secretive industry, making it very difficult for the law enforcement to infiltrate. This kind of activity leads to other crimes such as gambling, drug dealing, weapon offense, and money laundering. Animal fighting is illegal in all states, but the punishments for this cruel activity aren’t strict enough. The only charged that the individuals face are a misdemeanor, though some get felony. These cruel situations lead to some dogs having life threatening injuries, fractured or broken bones, and sometimes death.
Sadly, most animals that have been trained for fighting are too aggressive in which they are ultimately euthanized. Reporters say that dog fighting “suggest that the number of people involved in dog fighting in the U. S. is in the tens of thousands” (ASPCA). The most common animal fighting that has happened are dog fighting and cock fighting. Born in Newport News, Virginia, a professional quarterback named Michael Vick was sentenced 23 months for running a dog kennel being used for dog fighting. This football player career was headed in the right direction.
Vick had six years with a $62 million contract, plus a $15 million signing bonus. In April of 2007, investigators came across a drug activity by Vicks cousin’s property, then unveiled an ingrained property full of dogfighting and also numerous injured dogs. Vick denied the dog kennel he was running, but with a mount of evidence starting to build up, he revealed the truth. While he was in prison, he told someone that “‘I came to understand how much hurt I had caused, and how much work it was going to take to earn back just a portion of the respect that I had lost…” (Quinn). The punishments seemed reasonable, but not too severe.
The charges Vick ended up taking were 23 months in prison, 3 years’ probation and had to pay $1 million dollars in restitution charges. Cock fighting is what individuals call a bloody sport, this kind of activity leaves the chickens in physical trauma. This kind of event still happens today for main street entertainment and other show case activity for individuals. A news report issued that four men were arrested for conducting a cock fight in New Jersey. Police investigated the scene seeing that the chickens had no feathers from the neck down and had severe gauges on their body.
The four men were charged very little, one man was charged with possession of cock fighting equipment, while the others were charged with animal cruelty and a bail of five hundred dollars. These charges are not punishable enough for conducting an animal fight, therefore the laws for this kind of act needs to be stricter with more fines and prison time. Animals can be treated terribly, leading to harmed injuries and often death. Laws need to start coming into serious consideration in order to protect the lives of any kind of animal. There are different laws resulting in any animal abuse, but a great amount of this cruelty is unforeseen.
Humans aren’t punished enough in which laws need to be stricter for the benefit of the animals. Animal cruelty happens more than individuals know. Animal cruelty is subjective because legislation isn’t working to stop it. Laws come into consideration after a neglect or assault has taken place, leading to more abuse while others are trying to propose new laws. This concept crunches time for protecting animal rights. Though there are debates to what new standards need to be measured in order to protect the life of animals and even pets. Individuals need to identify the animal cruelty so others can see how abusive this act can get or be.