Personal Opinion About the Concept of Animal Cruelty

Americans have diverse opinions on animal cruelty, some are against it and some are for it. The people who are against it are sometimes focusing on a certain animal, such as, 60% of people are disturbed about animals in aquariums and amusement parks. Fewer Americans are disturbed about animals living in a livestock or in the zoo. We should focus on all animals in general due to seeing animal abuse being diverse. In an article people were polled on whether they support animal rights, “Despite the dominant culinary habits of Americans — people want to see a world that grants animals significant legal protections. Many Americans even seem to open to the idea of granting legal person hood to certain animals”(News Partner, 2018). It is pleasant to know people care for animals enough to protect them, however, there is that small percentage where humans just do not care. For the people who abuse animals they have three main reasons they do it. They do it on purpose for a short period, they do not realize what they are doing, and the most dreadful one is they enjoy hurting them just to feel more powerful. Since the percentage of having animal rights is more, the Nonhuman Rights project dispute that apes should be the first animal to have human rights. As America, we should all focus on the animals that get mistreated the most, they are the ones who deserve to have human rights the most.

My concern for animal cruelty has changed over the years, I was not concerned as much as I am now. Back then we did not see animal cruelty as we see it now, and that is because of social media. Anybody can record things on their phone and post it on social media and in seconds, it can be viral. Seeing animal cruelty on social media, from dogs getting beaten to death to seals as well, is disgusting and cruel. Americans believe animal cruelty began around 1866 for the reason that, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was developed. Back then since technology was not as advanced as it is now, we could not see the damage people were doing on innocent animals. The concern for animals being mistreated has grabbed all of our attention, even the political parties. Republicans accept that animals that are wild should be protected, but that hunting should be accepted for sports or food. Democrats close that animals that are wild should be protected from any harm and should have all rights of a human. Both political parties believe those domesticated animals need entirely governmental support. It is good that both political parties are on the same page about protecting animals that are in harm, they do have different thoughts about on some points, but overall it is good.

American has made laws about animal cruelty, meaning the governmental has taken actions about it. In all 50 states they have made animal cruelty be a felony, each state they decide what their punishment will be, it can be up to 7 years in prison. The government has also been in the process of stopping malicious videos online that show small animals being mistreated. A federal bill called the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act was made it known in March to the House of Representatives. An article stated that, “The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act would fill this gap by defining animal crushing — and allowing federal intervention when states lack the ability to enforce laws, according to the Animal Welfare Institute” (Kiyon, 2019). The indicated act stop videos that show small animals being abused, killed, and even being crushed to death. Statistically and physically we have seen that people genuinely care about animals, enough to make actions to stop it. We shall continue fighting for animal rights until there is no animal cruelty in the world.