There are many times in a persons life where beliefs come into question, not simply spiritual beliefs but ethical beliefs. Sometimes something happens that keeps a person from doing something, not just consequences but knowledge. A woman, for example learned that the exterior of some jelly beans are made from insect excrement- thus she no longer eats jelly beans.  I, myself, had a similar experience while researching the question "Is Animal Cruelty a problem," having grown up watching TV shows like "Animal Cops: Houston" and also having raised 12 cats, I find myself to be rather passionate on the matter. These days, however, that is not much of a question anymore, everyone knows that its wrong to beat up a 2 week old kitten, unfortunately there are still people that do it anyway. Therefore, the issue does not lie solely in animal abuse itself, but in how individuals view it and  how individual, communities, and veterinarians act upon it.

So, the first step would be to know how to spot domestic animal cruelty, or abuse that happens to pets in regular human environments. Laura Maloney writes that there are two kinds of animal cruelty; intentional and unintentional (USA Today). Intentional being where the person is aware of the harm they are inflicting upon the animal and does so on purpose, while unintentional would be things that the person is not doing, like providing the animal with enough food or simply general neglect. Maloney also writes that there are nine signs of animal cruelty that the average citizen should be aware of; 

tick infestation

wounds on the animal

inadequate grooming

extremely thin

the collar on so tight it eats into the animal's neck

 an owner striking the animal

pets repeatedly left alone in the yard without food or water

 pets that have been injured for a while and not taken to a vet

 and finally pets kept in extremely small cages and exposed to the elements 

(Maloney USA Today). This is something that everyone should be familiar with so that everyone can identify it. Furthermore, anyone can report it and on an individual level, and by extension a communal level, animal abuse can be prevented.  These signs can also be applied to areas other that domestic abuse.

Areas such as entertainment for example. The ASPCA, a renowned animal protection society,  wrote an article on their website on Greyhound Racing. Many people are not sure how dogs merely racing is considered animal abuse. However, the abuse occurs not only from the occasional on-track injuries but the off-track ones. If the dog loses a race it will definitely not race the next time, most likely because it will be dead. Not only that but many starve to death in poor living conditions and some of the rescued Greyhounds even tested positive for cocaine (ASPCA). Luckily, many are rescued and with the ever declining popularity of the sport there are only 20 racetracks in the entirety of the U.S.  This shows that animal cruelty can appear even in the most obscure of places if only to make some fast cash. 

A bigger problem in our country, in relation to dogs, however, are the "puppy mills." A woman in Iowa named Mary LaHay, was looking to get a dog, and like most people, she wanted a puppy. After looking in the news paper she found a promising breeder of golden doodle puppies. Needless to say after seeing the puppies she said, "They were adorable, roly-poly bundles of fur, but that fur was filthy" (LaHay Puppy Mills in Iowa). The dogs in puppy mills are kept in small cages exposed to the elements, one of the nine signs of animal abuse according to Maloney from USA Today, and are severely inbred causing various birth defects. Birth defects like epilepsy, heart disease, kidney disease, deafness, eye problems, even diabetes just to name a few (ASPCA). The ASPCA also has an article on their website on the matter, which adds that these mills are singularly focused on profit as opposed to the animals well being. Once again this form of animal cruelty is the result of greed, sacrificing the animals health to save a quick buck, an ongoing trend it seems.

One possible exception to this trend seems to be the example of laboratory animals. They may not experiment for mere profit but also to test cures for poisons or vaccines in order to help other people and possibly even other animals. Make-up companies, on the other hand, would be an example of experiments for profit. This is one of the things mentioned in "Do you know how your Mascara is Made?" by Arna Cohen, it begins with Europeans protesting in rabbit costumes for the abolition of cosmetic animal testing in the last company in Europe to do so. Cohen then gets into some of the more greusome details of animal testing in non-cosmetic laboratories. She says, "In carcinogenicity [cancer] tests, rats and mice are exposed to substances daily for up to two years to see if they develop tumors; reproductive tests involve daily exposure of pregnant rats and up to two generations of pups"(Cohen 40). This test and others are more gory and ought not to be written about in a civilized paper, all of which, Cohen says, inevitably result in death, whether the tests were successful or not. There is a great moral dilemma here, scientists simply can not quit trying to find a cure for cancer, but there are ethical concerns of their methods. One solution, Cohen writes, is where skin cells are grown in Petri dishes and with an artificial scaffold tissues can be grown that look and behave just like living tissues, imitating anything from nose to lung tissues.(Cohen 41). With that, it would solve the moral dilemma but the only problem would be that it would slow down scientific research and most likely make it much more expensive where it doesn't cost hardly anything to breed mice and rats.  This shows that the moral dilemma of lab animals is tougher than the others.  If we save the animals we might hurt ourselves later, but if we don't then there are many made to suffer and progress jumps forward.  Then the question arises, should we cause millions of animals to suffer simply to improve progress?

The meat industry of America would say "Yes."  Many people know that the meat industry in America is one of the worst and gruesome industries in the world, and some of those people just want to ignore it as best they can and go back to their burger. After reading the book, Slaughterhouse by Gail A. Eisnitz, however, there is no going back. Eisnitz is an animal cruelty investigator, who thought she has seen it all, until she gets a letter from a man named Timothy Walker, who works for a bovine slaughter house in Florida. I will spare you from some of the more gruesome details, but the main issue with this particular slaughter house was that after the cows passed the killing station, not all of them were dead (Eisnitz 18). Which not only is a stressful ethical issue but also a great danger for all of the employees, and what makes matters worse is that when an employee complained repeatedly or brought in outside enforcements, they were either fired or got moved to one of the most disgusting jobs which would cause them to quit quickly (Eisnitz 31). 

In her research, Eisnitz finds other places where these same issues occur, all of which are supposedly USDA approved.  On that note, Timothy Walker did not just work for that Florida slaughter house, he worked for the USDA, and after he contacted Eisnitz he was fired. Showing that if a worker for one of these places contacts someone outside the factory or USDA, they will be fired.  Another issue Eisnitz also points out is that there have been many children to eat beef from these places that was slightly undercooked and they got E. coli and either nearly died with severe permanent internal and brain damage or just died altogether (Eisnitz 49).   This shows that the meat industry is willing to sacrifice sanitation, animal well being, and even our well being, all to make money.

Whether in shelters or in slaughterhouses, all of these issues are still prevalent in America, and they not only effect animal health but also human health. So then the matter comes to resolve these issues, one way is to join or form an activist group, there are many in America today. However, there are many who are against such groups, people like John J. Miller who wrote "Activists Can Go Too Far Using Violence and Illegal Means to Achieve Their Aims."  A mouthful of a title to say the least, but the group he focuses on does in fact go too far.  He uses the example of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) group against the Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). As terrible as animal testing is it does not give people the right to trash people homes or drive wives of employees to the brink of divorce just to make a point (Miller). The SHAC group even sent threats to the employees and their families with things like "We know where you live! You cannot sleep at night! We will find you!"(Miller). That is just flat out creepy. Besides, there are many other civilized ways to make change happen. So if you do want to help against animal cruelty, try to buy cage free eggs, sign petitions, go to farmers markets, just please do not become an eco-terrorist type. 

Although, speaking of eco-terrorism on the other side of the line, there is a man named Will Potter, a journalist who had a TED talk called "The shocking move to criminalize nonviolent protest," who was labeled as an eco-terrorist. Now, he did not write anything on anyone's house or send any creepy threats, he was part of a group also against animal testing that put doorknockers on people's houses. He says, "I thought it was a safe way to do something positive"(Potter)  Unfortunately, he was arrested and a few days later the FBI threatened to put him on the domestic terrorist list unless he helped spy on protest groups (Potter). This shows that there are some risks depending on which company you decide to attack, metaphorically of course. Potter also says that there are many risks that animal rights activists can receive, such as being arrested for non-violent protests (Potter).  This issue is a terrible one indeed, a "damned if you do and damned if you don't" kind of situation, if you will.  There is a deep importance put on education in this TED talk and stressing that these arrests are meant to make people afraid. Potter says that all we must do is shed light on them and they will scatter away like cockroaches (Potter).  For those who have never been arrested it is a scary thing, which is why depending on the position you are in, you must plan your battles carefully. 

If you are already a veterinarian for instance, back to the domestic animal abuse, according to S.P. McDonough. et al. in "Illuminating Dark Cases: Veterinary Forensic Pathology Emerges,"  if you suspect an animal of having been abused you need to consult a Veterinary Pathologist. McDonough adds for motivation that "Animal abuse cases take on added importance when one realizes that animal abuse is but one facet of interpersonal violence. More than 70% of battered women who own pets report that their batterer threatened, injured, or killed family pets as a form of revenge or to psychologically control the victim McDonough). Disturbingly, 75% of these acts of violence toward animals occur in the presence of children"(McDonough). Which is an interesting statistic in and of itself and McDonough is basically using it to motivate Veterinary Pathologist to keep a detailed record of different kinds of abuse so that animal abuse is more easily identified. Veterinary Pathologists, also according to McDonough are not normally eager to jump into forensics because of its labor intensive qualities and requires meticulous documentation and strict maintenance of the chain of custody. Nevertheless, it is needed for moral justice and this is how veterinarians need to make a difference in the animal rights movement.

So, that is how veterinarians should handle things on their side but what about on the side of the entire community? If an entire town or even simply half of town pulls together to work to get something done, it gets done fairly quickly and efficiently. Anna Chow for her thesis for her Masters wrote "Exploring Public Perceptions of the Guelph Humane Society Facilities as a Centre for Human-Animal and Community Interaction," a title that essentially explains it all. Her thesis statement is "All these activities culminate in humane shelters becoming more than just a centre that cares for  animals and finds them homes, but as places in the community acting as a resource  centre for rescue animal-related issues, a far cry from the shelters of old that only housed homeless animals." (Chow 1)  If a large group of people pulls together to build a state of the art shelter that facilitates not only animal safety and, well, shelter but also community involvement(Chow). After all, how nice would it be, after a long day of school or work going to that local animal shelter to volunteer and feel like your making a difference while playing with animals. And this would be how community makes a difference in the animal rights movement.

Finally we move on to the individual, or how you, in particular, can make a difference.  I have mentioned a few ways, like researching where your meat comes from, and I have also told you how to spot animal cruelty if you see it in your neighborhood or anywhere else.  One thing you could do is donate a little money to your local animal shelter, or even volunteer there.  Another thing you could do is even lead your community, like Mary LaHay, as  motioned earlier, who wrote Puppy Mills in Iowa,  rallied her community in order to ban and enforce the disbandment of puppy mills.  She sent out hundreds of emails to both shelters and individuals to stop puppy mills and at first she did not succeed, the first meeting she held had only a handful of people show up (LaHay).  However, she eventually got enough people and shelters behind her to get the state to pass a new law to prevent puppy mills (LaHay). And this is how you can make a difference in the animal rights movement.

Although, there are some people that do not believe people should focus on animal rights at all, people like Damon Linker, who wrote, "Arguments for Animal Rights Will Lead to Further Abuse of Animals." A perplexing title indeed,  in it he argues that we should focus on human interests, such as biomedical research, in which animal testing should be allowed. A valid point to make, however the later half of his argument states that people will develop, what he calls "Antihuman Prejudice"(Linker). He states that in the past being human used to be considered good but now that we have begun to doubt that, that it is " giving rise in some educated circles to antiliberal, antiwhite, antimale, anti-Western, and now, with perfect logic, antihuman enthusiasms"(Linker).  There is clear fallacy in this argument, which is that humans are animals. Are they rocks or trees? No.  Do they breath, eat, and behave differently? Yes. This is why it is important for individuals and communities alike to keep in mind that human beings have an important role to play as the protectors of animals.

Because of all of these things, animal abuse is not the only problem, people must also be aware of how they view animal abuse, and how communities, individuals and veterinarians handle any form of animal abuse that exists around them. Always remember that your local veterinarian can make a difference, your community can make a difference, and most importantly, you can make a difference. Keep in mind, however, that how you make go about making a difference can be problematic, do not go writing profanities and threats, but do strive to be on the correct side of the law. Watch out for the horrors of factory farming and puppy mills, and any other corporation with only profit on their mind. And never forget the nine signs of animal cruelty.  It is in the little every day actions that everyone can do, like buying free range meat instead of factory meat, that propel this movement.  It is not the groups that vandalize nor is it the groups that sit on their thumbs.  It is you, you can propel this movement even further, you can tell your friends and they can tell theirs.  You could be a bold leader or just a crafty consumer, either way you can help make a difference in the lives of animals everywhere.

