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Abuse of the Innocent
Is it right to force a mouse to live it's live in a laboratory cage to
test anti-cancer drug? How would you like to be squeezed in a cage with
many other animals, not being able to touch the grass, run around and play,
smell the flowers, or go for a walk in the warmth of the sunshine? Animal
cruelty is wrong because we are hurting the Innocent. Animals experience
and feel pain, fear, anxiety, stress, depression, boredom, joy and
happiness. Animals are very intelligent, some ever learn our own language.
Most people experience their first bond with an animal. Not only do they
bring a companion and a friend into our lives, but also unconditional love
and comfort. Pet shops and puppy mills mass produce, kennels are
overcrowded and dirty, with very little nutrition. Cats/dogs are held in
metal cages and lead miserable lives breeding continuously. Animals suffer
and are neglected, some are sold to research laboratories. A large number
of animals are raised for slaughter each year. A cow "has a natural life
span of twenty- five to thirty years, but only survives for an average of
five".1 An estimated "seventeen million raccoons, beavers, bobcats, lynx,
coyotes, muskrats, nutria, and other animals are trapped each year in the
United States for fur".2 They suffer from unbearable pain for several
hours before their lives are ended by the trapper's club. Is the price of
live worth the price of fur? Psalm 104, 27-30. All creatures depend on you
to feed them throughout the year: you provide the food they eat, with
generous hands you satisfy their hunger. You turn your face away, they
suffer. You stop their breath, they die and revert to dust. You give
breath, fresh life begins, you keep renewing the world. Disections have
been practiced in biology classes for many years. Critics accuse some
teachers of killing and argue that disection teaches nothing but cruelty.
Nothing is learned by cutting up an animal that cannot be learned from
photographs or drawings. Children do not learn about the human body by
killing and disecting a person, they learn from diagrams and textbooks.
Vivisection means "cutting alive". It is a worldwide practice involving
millions of animals. Scientists say that vivisections may not necessarily
be painful. Every living being with a brain, spinal column, and central
nervous system feels pain. Animals were not created for entertainment.
What do zoos really teach children? The animals are stolen from their
natural habitats and are brutally transferred. They suffer from boredom
and have natural needs such as running, climbing, flying, and natural
mating. All of the magic and glitter of the circus hides the true animal
cruelty. Several animals are confined to small cages, muzzled, and
repeatedly whipped in training. They are declawed, have their teeth
removed, and drugged to be obedient. Military research on animals include
monkeys, baboons, rats, guinea pigs, sheep, dogs, cats, rabbits, and mice.
"... when I see my closest relative locked in a restraining box, his head
filled with electrodes, and all he has got to reach out to you is with his
eyes, then how can we respond to that if we close ours?".3 Weapons are
tested on innocent animals, nerve gas, bullets, and bombs are all used.
"One sad insight is gleaned from this statement, made by a Porton workman
who lost his bearings: 'I thought I was ill, I thought I was seeing things.
It was a little monkey enclosed In a glass cage. Its eyes seemed to be
falling out and it couldn't breathe. It was in dreadful, dreadful
distress. I forgot everything and went near it and said something to it,
and it buried its head in it's arms and sobbed like a child. I never slept
that night, and the next day managed to go back to the same room, but it
was nearly finished by then. It had sunk to a little heap at the bottom of
the glass cage.'."4 Animal cruelty is wrong, we are hurting the innocent.
Cruelty of animals can be stopped, not only do we have to open our eyes,
but open our mouths as well. Read a book, write a letter, join a group or
start a group, either way, an animal will be grateful for the chance of a
happy life.
656 End Notes
1. Loraine Kay, Living Without Cruelty, (London: Sidwick & Jackson, 1990),
p.15.
2. Laura Fraser, The Animal Rights Handbook, (Los Angeles: Living Planet
Press, 1990), p.9.
3. Kay, Living Without Cruelty, p. 121.
4. Kay, Living Without Cruelty, p.119. Bibliography 1. Fraser, Laura. The
Animal Rights Handbook. Los Angeles, Living Planet Press, 1990.
2. Kay, Loraine. Living Without Cruelty. London, Sidwick & Jackson, 1990.
3. Jasper, James M. and Dorothy Nelkin. The Animal Rights Crusade. New
York, The Free Press, 1992.
Word Count: 809
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