Ethical Dilemmas, Human Rights, and Values

Are ethical dilemmas present in animal abuse? Well lets take a minute to think about this. Humans beating, killing, and using animals for money, that sounds very immoral, and yet we go on as if things are going to change on their own. We watch it happen, and most of us do not do anything. That is an ethical dilemma right there. If we could make restrictions, and bigger cases of examples more people would understand the issue and make a change. Michael Vick, he was an all star football player, and he got into the business of dog fighting. He was sent to jail, but as soon as he got out of jail he was aloud to rejoin the NFL. Theres something wrong with that because although he is an amazing athlete, he took the innocent lives of dogs, and he should have been kicked from the NFL, never mind the fact that he has a dog now. How do you let a former animal abuser own another animal. How about human rights. Although animals are not humans, they still deserve their rights, and yes they are being broken. Last time checked, animals have the right to not be drugged, hit, kicked, whipped, locked up, isolated, or forced to fight for their lives. These rights are not being resolved, and there is only one way. That is to increase the harshness of the penalty. If the animal is not dead, I would say a jail sentence of two to ten years, and a fine of $10,000 that goes to animal abuse foundations. If the animal dies, a jail sentence of a lifetime and all belongings taken away and the value of them goes to animal abuse foundations. This way if you take a life, you give a life, and abusers will have to think twice before they hit that dog, of kick that cat, or whatever it may be. Some people are valuing faith or what is right, and that is completely wrong. In some countries it is part of religion, and culture, however, those beliefs need to be reevaluated because at this point in time they are just inhumane. Rather than abuse animals to celebrate an event, or practice their religion they can find a supplement such as having a family gathering. As the USA I feel as if we are going about this issue scared. I feel as if we know the issue is their in other countries as well as ours, but we are afraid to fight for what is right. We are to nervous that if we tell our friends to stop abusing animals, they could become our enemies. We have to be thinking about how the animals. When we weigh out the scale we should realize that animal safety is more important than making friends, because as America we have to lead by example.

"What Are the 2 Most Abused Animals in the World?" Yahoo! Answers. Yahoo!, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2013.

"11 Facts About Animal Cruelty." Do Something. Do Something, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2013.

Consequences

Running of the Bulls

There are many different consequences for animal cruelty. Common punishments in America are jail sentences, and fines. If the animal is abused but is still alive in New Jersey you can be filed with a jail sentence up to 18 months, and fined up to 1,000 dollars. If the animal dies the jail sentence increases up to 5 years, and the fine to 15,000 dollars. In these cases animals suffer from injustice. Last time I checked, it is against peoples rights to kick, hit, and lock people up in rooms by themselves for days. Since this is the case, what is the difference for the animals. Many times animals who are being abused go unrecognized. This is because if abusers abuse their animals in scenarios where the public cannot see, then the animal cannot speak for itself and it can go not noticed. Suspects of animal abuse should be closely watched, and hopefully stopped before any creature dies, or gets hurt any worse. Reaching out passed America, animal abuse is an even bigger problem. Many countries globally encourage animal abuse through celebrations, and culture. In many Spanish speaking countries they celebrate running of the bulls where unfed, disgruntled bulls are let out to chase people throughout an area. In Colombia bullfighting and cockfighting is a cultural heritage. In my opinion there is one reason why countries don't worry about animal abuse as much is because humans are not the victims of the discrimination. If humans were the victims larger steps to resolving the problems would be taken, but that is not right. In all of these cases the main consequences happen to the animals because the majority of the time they can't fight back whether their being poisoned, hurt, or whatever the cause might be, humans abuse animals.

"Stray Pet Advocacy." Stray Pet Advocacy. Stray Pet Advocacy, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2013.   
"Animal Abuse and Neglect : The Humane Society of the United States." RSS. The Humane Society, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2013.
Picture from: http://media.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/photos/images/july09/bulls_sm/bulls06.jpg

Causes

   What causes animal abuse? Think about what people like. Most people like money, and they will do whatever they can to get it. For example, dog fighting. Men and women fight their dogs to death for some cash in exchange. Other people have acquired too many animals to take care of and isolate them for days with no attention. Although that may not seem that harmful animals need attention and isolated them is a from of abuse. How would you feel if you sat in a room for a week with no social life? It is not scientifically proven that it these reasons are the cause, but if you look at research and past cases you know that these are the causes. Some countries abuse animals during national festivals or sporting events. Like running of the bulls, and bull fighting in many Spanish speaking countries. Unless people aren't seeing things clearly they won't disagree that abusing animals is completely wrong. Whether abusing animals is part of your life, culture, or religion, it still remains wrong, and needs to be stopped.

References:

"Cruelty to Animals." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 June 2013. Web. 07 Feb. 2013.

"Information on Animal Cruelty." Do Something. Do Something, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2013.

Why I Chose My Topic

   I chose the topic animal abuse. In my opinion people don't realize how big of a problem animal abuse really is. First of all the fact that people torture, and beat animals is very inhumane. Then other than beating animals well known companies use animals to test their products on. Over 100 million animals are tested on each year. That is why I chose animal abuse. It is because animals deserve to be treated with similar rights to humans, and just because they can't take someone to court like a human would, it doesn't mean that it is necessary to take out anger and passion on them. For the testings, if you wouldn't use a human to test it on, don't use an animal. People need to start thinking about they actions, and change.