Animal Cruelty By Sarah West

Animal Dreams, by Barbara Kingsolver, which revolves around reverence for the natural environment, and Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, about the Los Angeles Riots of 1992, by Anna Deavere Smith, present different sides of human behavior. Animal Dreams is a novel about Codi, a woman who returns to her hometown and helps the townsfolk protest peacefully against a mine that damages their water supply. The preservation of nature and the ability to make a difference by protesting peacefully are major themes in the novel. Twilight is a play that consists of edited interview transcripts of various people who observed and experienced the Los Angeles riots of 1992. The riots began in response to the acquittal of a group of white police officers who were videotaped beating Rodney King, an unarmed black man who had been driving under the influence at dangerously high speeds. Violence escalated among the people of Los Angeles until it was declared a disaster area only a few days later. Thousands of businesses were damaged, and dozens of people died. Twilight and Animal Dreams have contrasting major themes when it comes to how people will act in response to having their lives threatened. The people of Twilight and Animal Dreams have similar motives but opposite responses. Twilight shows the brutal nature of humanity when motivated by injustice, while Animal Dreams highlights the peaceful nature of people even when faced with powerful, oppressive institutions.

It was November, 2007. A phone call that my daughter was in the principal’s office in the

Peter Singer is one philosopher who attempts to answer this question. Singer being an advocate of animal equality argues that humans and animals are morally equal. He believes the unjust treatment of animals is derived from speciesism; describes the widespread discrimination

In “The Victims” by Sharon Olds it describes a divorce through the eyes of the parents’ children. The first section is shown through past tense as the speaker is a child and the last section is shown in present tense with the speaker already being an adult trying to make sense of past events. The word “it” in the first two lines carries a tremendous weight, hinting at the ever so present abuse and mistreatment, but remaining non-specific. The first part generates a negative tone toward the father who is referred to as malicious by the mother who “took it” from him “in silence” until she eventually “kicked him out.” Through the entirety of the poem the children are taught to hate their father. Who taught them? Their mother showed them that their father was a villain and were taught to have no sympathy for him but “to hate you and take it” and so they did so. Although the poem never directly states what the father did to receive the family’s hated, the speaker gives examples as to why he is hated.

Humans have always had a complicated relationship with non-human animals. This relationship has always benefitted the needs of humans, with little consideration for animals’ needs. Some animals are tortured for entertainment, some are butchered for food and others are taken from their habitat and family, and forced to be pets for humans. These are all examples of the ways humans have exploited animals for their own satisfaction. Hal Herzog’s essay “Animals Like Us” describes the complicated relationship that humans and animals have, and how difficult it is to determine what is ethical when dealing with animals. Jonathan Safran Foer makes a similar observation in his essay “The Fruits of Family Trees” of the ethical issues in the

The Vancouver Aquarium uses dolphins and belugas to provide entertainment and utilizes the profit gained, to aid them in research. In The Case for Animal Rights, Tom Regan’s moral principles state that there should be total abolition of the use of animals in science as well as for entertainment purposes (337). Moreover, he claims that humans and animals have equal values and rights. Based on this principle, I argue that the practices of the Vancouver Aquarium of using belugas and dolphins for scientific and entertainment purposes is immoral and thus unjustified.

In order to understand why cruelty is wrong, it is important to understand what cruelty is.

Yes , there should be harsher laws for animal cruelty, Because animals are just as important as humans because they are loving , caring and they have emotions and feelings. Animals bring so much joy and laughter into our lives , and its so unfair that they get treated the way that they do Animals are living things too and people need to respect them the way they would like to be respected , . Just because we believe that we are superior because they can’t talk or write is absolutely wrong , we just don’t understand how dogs use their way of communication .

Over the centuries, animals have suffered from cruelty from humans. In the United States, animals are beaten, neglected, or forced to struggle for survival. Animals have been inflicted with pain from humans for reasons other than self-defense. They have been slaughtered for their food and fur for personal gain in profit. In a majority of cases they have even been abused for someone’s own personal amusement or out of rage filled impulses. In some cases animals are found and rescued. They are given the second chance in life to experience what life should be like compared to what they once had.

a. Because of this, we need to take cruelty towards animals seriously. It is a sign of aggression and violence and can often lead to even more gruesome crimes, not just towards animals, but towards humans as well.

This viewpoint advanced by Kant is further expounded upon in his essay "Our Duties to Animals". Here he explains that we have no direct duties to animals because they are not self-conscious, rational moral agents. Instead we have indirect duties to human beings in regards to animals. We should therefore not be cruel to animals because "he who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men."# According to Kant, " we can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."#

On page 112 of The Fault in Our Stars, written by John Green, a character writes in a letter, “…but there is no shortage of fault to be found amid our stars”. This quote captures a major theme in the novel, the idea that humans cannot always be blamed for their demise due to situations beyond the control of humans. The Fault in Our Stars is a rather pessimistic piece in which the title itself serves to emphasize the random cruelty of the universe and stands as a direct challenge to a quote and theme present in Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar. The title The Fault in Our Stars is an obvious reference to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar quote, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings”.

There are so many different types of cruelty caused by humans or in some cases by a few other primates.

Animals are a big part of many people’s lives. They provide companionship; they provide daily assistance to those that have deficits and are having difficulty functioning in their daily life; they provide security and help keep a watchful eye on things, plus so much more. And yet, with all that animals do for us, there are those that are treated with such little regard, care, and cruelty. They are unable to speak for themselves and therefore, they need a voice to speak for them.

Animal Cruelty is a subject that spreads far across the United States and into most civilized cultures. Animal cruelty can either be in the form of intentional abuse, simple neglect, or abandonment of animals.  Whatever forms the abuse takes, however, the animal that is the victim of the abuse is often helpless and may experience extreme suffering. Animal right activist feel if you don’t know how to take care or treat an animal it can be as deadly as physical abuse to care for one.