Stop the abuse, stop the cruelty !

Wondering how to stop animal abuse? April is Prevention of Animal Cruelty Month and Petside is supporting this cause by giving you five simple ways you can help prevent cruelty. 

In just minutes, you can prevent animal cruelty and make a difference in your community.

1. Speak for Animals

Animals can't speak up when they are being abused, so when you see something, say something. If you witness an act of animal cruelty in your neighborhood, contact the authorities immediately. Report the incident to your local police department, animal control or humane society. Animal cruelty, neglect and abuse are illegal in every state in the nation under the Animal Welfare Act.

2. Teach Children to Respect Animals

Help stop animal abuse by being a role model to your children and showing them how to properly take care of and handle animals. To reach even more kids, talk to your children's school or neighborhood community center and see if you can arrange an assembly on responsible pet ownership. Respecting animals needs to start young because acts of violence towards pets can sometimes be an indicator of violence towards people later in life.

3. Vote!

Put politicians in office who support animal protection legislation. Check out candidates' websites or call their headquarters and find out how they plan to help stop animal abuse in your area. You can also write to your current representatives and ask them to support laws that increase punishment for animal abusers or increase the number animal control officers.

4. Say NO to Puppy Mills

Puppy mills are a horrible reality of the pet industry. Help stop animal abuse by refusing to buy pets or supplies from any store or website that sell animals. While you may think buying a puppy mill pet is saving an animal, it is only encouraging these mills to stay in business by keeping up the demand for their product. Only adopt from shelters or buy from reputable breeders and tell your friends to do the same.

5. Volunteer or Donate

Prevent animal cruelty by volunteering your time and talents to a worthy cause. Even a few hours a week holding and petting animals at a shelter increases their chance of being adopted by making them more people friendly. If you are a writer, offer to help write the newsletter or lend your design skills to their website and advertisements. If you don't have the time to volunteer, you can still make a difference by donating to an animal rights organization in your community.

Bears, elephants, tigers, and other animals do not voluntarily ride bicycles, stand on their heads, balance on balls, or jump through rings of fire. They don't perform these and other difficult tricks because they want to; they perform them because they're afraid of what will happen if they don't.

For animals in circuses, there is no such thing as "positive reinforcement"—only varying degrees of punishment and deprivation. To force them to perform these meaningless and physically uncomfortable tricks, trainers use whips, tight collars, muzzles, electric prods, billhooks, and other painful tools of the trade.

 

Extinction brings up some pretty interesting evolutionary considerations. Estimates say that by mid 21st century 30% of species may be extinct . In the end, extinction will be the ultimate fate of all species- but how long it will take to get there will depend heavily on humanity’s future courses of action.

Contrary to what some may believe, today’s hunting regulations are very strict and help ensure that hunting activities are controlled and operated in an ethical way. From what kind of animals can be hunted, which season and how many, hunting regulation efforts are there to help preserve wildlife and habitats, and have actually aided in population recovery with a host of endangered species. It is the illegal hunting that is the real problem.

Here we’ll look at some notable animals that have been hunted (or nearly) hunted to extinction.

The last of the Great Woolly Mammoth populations vanished near the end of the last Ice Age over 4,000 years ago. These incredible creatures carried tusks that could measure up to 15 feet long. And imagine- they are considered one of the smallest among their specie. The mammoth lived on birch and was hunted for meat and fur. The hunting of the last surviving woolly mammoths greatly contributed to their decline and extinction. With the decline in mammoths, birch forests, known for being high sunlight absorbers, multiplied and helped melt away the Ice Age, taking the woolly mammoth with it.

Tigers were first put on the endangered specie list in the 1960’s, but trophy hunting and fur trade has continued despite the heightened risk of extinction. The Caspian tiger specie had been pretty well wiped out at the beginning of the 20th century, when the Russian government was setting up rice and cotton fields in forests these tigers inhabited. The army was ordered to exterminate all tigers found near the Caspian sea. The Caspian tiger, a sub-specie of the Siberian tiger, went extinct sometime between 1954-1959 and while there have been a few reported sightings, one in the 1970s and another in 1997, these claims have never been confirmed.

In 1936, the largest carnivorous marsupial of the time, the thylacine - became extinct. With the head of a dog, the stripes of a cat and the pouch of a kangaroo this unique creature, better known as the Tasmanian tiger, just couldn’t seem to make its place alongside humans (or dingoes apparently). Many farmers believed thylacines were responsible for attacking their livestock. Killing them was considered acceptable if not encouraged. One particular wool and textile supply company called Van Diemen’s Land Company was in great part responsible for the eradication of the Tasmanian tiger.

They believed they were such a problem that they put bounties on thylacines starting in 1830. Between 1888-1909, the Tasmanian government was even paying to have thylacines exterminated. By 1936 the last known thylacine named "Benjamin," died at the Hobart zoo.

The dodo has been the proverbial bird that was always destined for doom. And when humans first arrived on the island of Mauritius, home of the dodo, “Dodo never had a chance”. Dodos went extinct in the mid-to-late 17th century and their disappearance is directly attributable to human activity. These flightless birds evolved in a land that was isolated from predators so when humans first barged in, bringing with them a rumpus of new lifeforms like dogs, cats and bloodthirsty pigs, dodos were unaware of the grave danger that threatened their lives.

This oblivious fearlessness of other species coupled with their inability to fly made them very vulnerable and easy targets. Just a century after their species’ discovery in 1581, this rare bird “went the way of the dodo” as they say.

The Passenger Pigeon’s story is a grim one. It was one of the most abundant birds in the world - but by the early 20th century, their specie had been hunted to extinction. Due to their abundance, (they would migrate in flocks of billions through the sky!) their meat was used to feed slaves and the poor and they were slaughtered, quite barbarically on a prodigious scale.

Polar Bears have become endangered in large part because of global warming and climate change in the Arctic. Two thirds of the population of polar bears may vanish due to such apolar shift in weather conditions. Excessive hunting for their precious hides, meat, fat and flesh have also helped significantly reduce their numbers. Estimates by scientists researching polar bears and arctic habitat suggest there might be 20,000- 25,000 polar bears remaining.

The muskox nearly became instinct because of over-hunting throughout the late 1900s until the 1930s. Fortunately, population recovery has taken place thanks to hunting regulations. Muskox are hunted for their hides, for food and for trophies- but they are run away from for their pungent musky smell. Like a friendly adrenaline snot warning, this smell gets emitted from a gland in their noses when getting ready to charge and attack. The smell also attracts females during mating season. Just a spritz of Eau de Muskox seems to drive the Muskoxettes wild!

Fewer than 600 Mediterranean monk seals exist and they are one of world’s most critically endangered marine mammals. Their decline can be attributed to industrial development and the establishment of resort areas along the Mediterranean Sea- but fisherman have also played their part in causing such low numbers. Illegal shooting occurs very frequently because seals are blamed for eating all the fish.

Humans have long hunted crocodiles for their valuable skins used to make shoes, belts, bags and more. From the 1950s to the late 1960s excessive hunting rendered the American croc endangered. Recently, things took a turn for the better. In 2003 the nonprofit World Conservation Union reclassified the sharp-toothed reptile from 'endangered' to ‘threatened’. This means there has been enough population recovery to sustain the croc population, however this does not make them fully immune to threats.

The flying fox (a bat of the genus Pteropus) is the largest species of bat in the world, with a wingspan of up to 6 feet! Like many species native to the Pacific, it is threatened with extinction because it is over-hunted for its meat (which is considered a delicacy), medicinal purposes (pteropus meat is believed to help cure asthma) and just for sport.

Shark fin (the main ingredient in shark fin soup) is another prized delicacy which has unfortunately led to a serious decline in the number of great whites. Great white sharks are the largest predatory fish on Earth but these giant sea creatures are victims of "finning" by fisherman, essentially, stripping the fins from the shark then tossing them back in the water to die or be eaten alive. The practice has been declared illegal in several countries including Brazil, South Africa and the USA but it remains widespread and largely unmonitored.

A FAITHFUL DOG

Humans are so powerful and resourceful, we dominate the food chain, we survived the ice age, we quickly adapt to our environment, we built sky sweepers, jet planes to travel from a continent to another within hours, we landed on the moon, and nowadays we can make a perfect duplicate from our selves by cloning… this list can go on and on and on about the great achievement of the human race.

But, what pauses me and shocks me is how we got this developed and dominated this globe and we still have dog fights for entertainment, killing seals for there skin, ripping the skin of an innocent defenseless rabbit to make a coat, slathering elephants and rhinos for there ivory, keeping dogs and cats in cages that they barely fit in so we can sell them and make a living out of other’s agony, murdering wolves so we can be warm, I’m surprised how we can hit and torture stray cats and dogs just for the fun of it.

Animal cruelty is one of the most intense and painful topics for me, how we can torment harmless, defenseless and most important speechless creature???

Is it because they can’t talk and scream for help? Or is it because we think of them as less?

Do we do this because the simple fact that we can?

I think we do it because we are sick!

People who practice animal cruelty, for me are sick twisted and they are looser and they can’t get a grip on there lives, they either experienced domestic violence by their parents, underachievers, social outcast, what I need to say is that they definitely have something wrong going on in their lives and they put it and steam it out on animals, SICK!!!

What defines us as human beings is our ability to feel sympathy and to nurture, and we rise in our humanity when we treat our less among us with respect and love.

How it feels if they did it to you or for any of your love ones, like your son??!!