As people neglect, stone, thrash, kick, attack and kill animals wantonly
Ghana’s Loud Silence On Animal Rights
The shocking number of animal cruelty cases reported every day is just the tip of the iceberg—most cases are never reported.
Surveys suggest that those who intentionally abuse animals are predominantly men under 30, while those involved in animal hoarding are more likely to be women over 60.
Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse, animal neglect, or animal cruelty is the infliction of harm or suffering for specific achievements, such as killing animals for entertainment. Cruelty to animals is referred to as zoosadism.
Conventional wisdom about animal ethics is that killing an animal is not the problem; the problem is making the animal suffer. As long as we have treated and killed an animal in a ‘humane’ way, we have done nothing wrong. The humane way of killing animals is to stun them into some form of unconsciousness before applying knives to them. Most abattoirs do not obey this rule.
The food industry is the worst culprit, its requisition of meat for meals which results in the killing of millions of animals to be served in restaurants and other local eateries
Animal Rights theorists say the only way to ensure protection for animals is to end their status as property and to ensure that they are never viewed as a substance or as non-living things.
If you see or suspect that someone is mistreating animals, contact the local humane society if there are any in your country or the police.
1. Climate change
Human practices that distort climate patterns are also crimes against animals/fish/birds as they suffer the consequences. Climate change has interfered with animal migration. When the weather is inconsistent, birds and other migrators don’t know when to depart. Where climate change has disrupted breeding habitats, it has the potential to decimate an entire species in one generation.
2. Suburban sprawl equals lost habitat
Some people would say that human overpopulation is the problem. But humans could have expanded their population while sharing space with animals. The problem is urban sprawl and development practices.
Instead of keeping the footprints of our houses small and building up instead of out, we chop down twenty trees just to build one Mansion. Then we pave half an acre for a driveway and parking pad.
Every time you chop down one mature tree, you are destroying the breeding habitat of twenty bird couples. Paving destroys any number of box turtles, lizards, and frogs.
3. Disastrous fishing practices
An albatross caught on a longline
Dragnet fishing, especially bottom trawling, is a disaster, plain and simple. It wipes out every animal in its path, including endangered turtles, whales, dolphins, and any number of other species that are not edible. Longline fishing also comes with a catastrophic by-catch of sea birds and turtles.
4. Invasive species
Where invasive species have been introduced, they wipe out the local wildlife. The invaders eat all the food or they simply dine on the more fragile species that occupy that habitat by right.
The most dramatic example is the Asian carp that have taken over the Illinois river. They eat up all the plankton, leaving the native fish to starve to death. The fear is that they will take over the great lakes which are open to the Illinois river.
5. Factory farming
There’s no getting around the fact that corporately farmed chickens are handled with extreme cruelty. They are confined to extremely small spaces, injected with hormones, and fed only on cheap grain. Many farmers cut off their beaks so they don’t peck each other to death.
But the evils of farming don’t end there. The methane produced by cows is a major contributor to climate change. The runoff from farms pollutes waterways where it kills wildlife. The animals whose abuse is most often reported are dogs, cats, horses, and livestock. Undercover investigations have revealed that animal abuse abounds in the factory farm industry. But because of the weak protections afforded to livestock under cruelty laws, only the most shocking cases are reported, and few are ever prosecuted.
6. Feral cats and dogs
Feral means an animal out of bondage that goes berserk. Overbreeding pets is a problem for the pets themselves and for the wildlife they destroy when they go wild and live outdoors. Dogs who run wild will kill everybody from turtles to baby alligators to frogs, lizards, and even birds. Cats do the same, and they’re particularly adept at killing birds.
7. Destroying predators
Eastern wolves used to roam the entire United States from the Atlantic coast to the mid-west. These species have been obliterated and are now only seen in remote parts of Canada. Eastern big cats, especially the panther, have also been decimated.
Taking out predators causes a collapse in the food chain which is devastating to other wildlife. For example, in Canada, hunters killed the wolves who were thinning the caribou herds, taking out the sick and diseased individuals. When the wolf population collapsed, the caribou population collapsed with it.
In the United States, the killing of predators has meant that the system is overrun with deer which, in turn, eat too much native vegetation. Other animals need that vegetation or they die of starvation.
8. Pet euthanasia
According to the Animal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty On Animals, ASPCA, “Each year, approximately 1.5 million shelter animals are euthanized.” That’s a lot of animals dying unnecessarily.
9. Destruction and displacement of service animals
On the battlefield, dogs take bullets for their soldiers. They sniff out bombs for their soldiers and generally alert their men to dangers. They save thousands of lives.
Then these brave and loyal beasts are rounded up in trucks, and their men are likely never to see them again. Some of them are commandeered by high-ranking military guys who work in elegant offices all day and never have to face a moment’s danger. Others are euthanized, against the will of the men they fought with.
10. Animal experiments
Many animal experiments entail needless suffering, and the aim of the research may well be unrelated to human welfare. For example, there was an experiment that involved sewing-shut the eyes of kittens. The purpose of this experiment was to study the effect of sensory deprivation on the kitten’s brain. Obviously, this had nothing to do with making sure heart surgery on children is done safely and successfully. Vivisection is the practice of performing operations on live animals for the purpose of experimentation or scientific research (the term vivisection is used only by people who are opposed to such work).
11. Abandonment
12. Deliberately setting up dogfights/cockfights/others.
It is a felony to participate in organized dogfighting. In addition to actually putting a dog in the ring, it’s also generally illegal to own or train fighting dogs, to allow a fight on your property, to bet on a fight, or even to be present where you know that a dogfight is happening.
13. Cosmetic Cruelty
It is still the fashion, among those who breed and show certain kinds of dogs, to cut off part of the ears and tails of puppies. It’s outlawed in many other countries but legal in most of the United States. In some jurisdictions, it is a crime to show a dog with cropped ears unless a veterinarian has certified that it was necessary. Several states require that ear-cropping or tail docking be done by a vet, with anesthesia. Other states outlaw other procedures that aren’t medically necessary—like cutting a dog’s vocal cords or, giving your pet cosmetic tattoos or piercings.
14. Leaving Pets in Hot or Cold Cars
Laws specifically forbid leaving a dog or cat unattended in a vehicle under harmful conditions—which usually means that it’s too hot or cold inside the car. In the United States, a handful of states, including California and Florida, have “Good Samaritan” laws that allow bystanders to break into locked cars to rescue animals in distress, but only if it’s necessary and only after they’ve taken steps like contacting law enforcement. In reality, however, authorities are unlikely to press charges unless a pet died as a result.
15. Neglect
Almost all countries conscious of animal rights make it illegal to neglect an animal. In many states, neglect simply means not providing necessary food, water, and shelter. Some go further by requiring that the animal owner give the animal needed veterinary care, exercise, sanitary conditions, and protection from the weather.
16. Torture and Other Cruel Treatment
Typically, animal cruelty laws prohibit torture, mutilation, overworking, and killing any animal unnecessarily or cruelly. Some countries require that the abuse be intentional or malicious, while others increase the penalties when the abuse is reckless or malicious. Many statutes also explicitly outlaw poisoning an animal deliberately or placing poison where someone else’s animal is likely to eat it.
17. Animal Hoarding
The most outrageous form of animal abuse is animal hoarding. Hoarders usually have hundreds of cats and dogs. These creatures are malnourished and have serious medical issues, dental and eye illnesses, and psychological distress.
18. Bushfires.
A common sight in a country like Ghana is bushfires, for charcoal harvests. All other activities destructive to the forest estate like illegal mining (galamsey), and forest logging the habitat of flora and fauna.
19. Abuses In Equestrian Sport.
Basically, this is a sport mostly using horses which often undergo serious abuse. Horse or stable managers sometimes leave the animal in distress, one of these being leaving the horse unfed for a very long time. Steer wrestling, also known as bulldogging, is a rodeo event in which a horse-mounted rider chases a steer, drops from the horse to the steer, then wrestles the steer to the ground by grabbing its horns and pulling it off-balance so that it falls to the ground. The event carries a high risk of injury to the cowboy. In some instances, the horses had their stomachs pierced by bull horns. Steep horse diving is the most abusive sport involving horses. It is made to jump from a height into a pool of water on the ground. Some horses end up with broken legs and other severe injuries.
20. Giving Pets as Gifts is a Bad Idea
Giving a pet as a gift for Christmas may seem like a good idea at the time, especially if you know the person you are giving it to really wants a pet. Many dogs live 12 to 15 years and, for a cat, 15 years is at the lower end of the life expectancy spectrum. Unless you know that the person you are giving the pet to can make this kind of commitment, look for another gift.
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