Animal abuse is mistreating or hurting an animal in any shape. Over time periods, animal abuse has become more serious because there are many cases that are happening. In different states, there are different laws against animal cruelty. For example, South Carolina can charge you a minimum of five hundred dollars and a few years in jail whereas California can just charge you a fine. There are many cases where people see that there needs to be stricter laws for these animals because they are just like humans. Even though there are many laws in the United States, there needs to be stricter punishments because there are loopholes in different laws and people who do not take it serious.  

Animal abuse is an issue that has lasted for many centuries. In Ancient Civilizations, animals being abused was demonstrated in artworks. In Ancient Egypt, felines were worshipped and if anybody from the area harmed or killed one, they had to deal with the harsh penalties (Tiplady, 8). Throughout the Roman Empire, animal exhibits, animal fights, and stage hunts which end with a mass killing of animals was considered entertainment. When the Colosseum, in Rome, opened, people celebrated by killing at least eight thousand animals in two days. Also, eleven thousand animals were killed after the Emperor Trajan’s military victory. One reason why animal killing became popular was the exposure to the viewer that was repeated over and over. The exposure made the citizens of Rome feel excited and surprised. Another reason for the increase in violence of animals was politically motivated (Tiplady, 8-10). Tiplady provided information that demonstrated how animals were treated back in time. Animal abuse continued to be an issue after these time periods.  

During the mid-19th century to early 20th century, addressing the treatment and humane care of animals started to show up. In 1877, the American Humane Association offered ideas on how animals should be treated and taken care of. In 1952, the Animal Welfare Institute was adapted to explain the conditions for research and farm animals. Many other organizations or acts were created throughout the 20th century (Silberman, 162). These organizations or acts included how animals can be shipped and what animals could be use during research projects (Silberman, 164).  Many of these acts are still issue in today’s society. Even though there are standards that people are suppose to follow, there is always a few people who do not follow these standards. A problem with the acts is that they do not state a punishment for the people who do not follow the standards. Because there is not a punishment stated in the acts, people have gotten away with mistreated the animals which is not right. If a person abuses or mistreats an animal, they should be punished for that action. The acts are not the only thing that allows people to get away with mistreating animals or have a lesser punishment. 

In 2010, a few states had weak protection for animals. The states that are considered the worst states to be an animal are Idaho, Hawaii, Kentucky, Mississippi, and North Dakota (Thornton, prg. 1). According to Animal Legal Defense Fund, these five states do not require owners to provide basic animal care, mental health evaluations for those that convicted animal abuse, and no restrictions on future ownership of animals for those who abused any animals (Thornton, prg. 2). Three states do not believe that cruelty or abandonment of animals is a felony (Thornton, prg 3).  Those three states should be ashamed because many people are abusing animals without getting any punishment for an action that is wrong. If the states did consider animal cruelty has a felony, the states could see a decrease in animals that get hurt because people will see that if they hurt an animal, they will get punished and may be go to jail for a while. During this year, veterinarians in Kentucky did not have the right to report any suspected cruelty or fighting between any animals or animals and humans. But in recent years, a bill was introduced to amend the issue (Thornton, prg. 7). In 2010, these states showed how animal abuse cases were not taken seriously but over time, they are trying to make it better for the animals. According to Thornton, these states are taking action to have better protection for animals. The steps that the states are taking include mandates for mental health evaluations and restrictions on ownership of animals for people who were convicted for animal abuse (Thornton, prg. 11). Even though these states are taking action to help animals, most people would think the steps are not helping the animal at all. These steps seem to help the people who were convicted of animal cruelty more than the animals themselves. These states need to consider regulations or laws that will make the punishment harder for people who decide to abuse animals because some of the states will give them a small fine or a few days in jail (Thornton, prg. 6). People who harm an animal in any way should get more than a fine or a few days in jail because animals have feelings that they can not verbal say how they feel about being abused and most people consider different types of animals as a pet or a loved one. If all the states had stricter punishments, animals would be thankful since they don’t have a say how they feel and the people who convicted the crime would not abuse another animal if their punishment was harsh. 

Many states have laws against animal abuse cases. Sometimes, the laws and misdemeanor offenses allow suspects to get away with their actions or to have a lesser punishment. Also, prosecutors are less likely to charge or prosecute the suspect that committed an animal cruelty case because they focus on other violent crimes (Frasch, pg. 70). According to Frasch, there are eight states that allow people to go to counseling if probation is granted (Frasch, pg. 70). The reason behind this is to see if the person has any psychological issues or problems. In six states, the judge can give a person community service as a part of their sentencing or probation. Sometimes the community service is for the person to work in an animal shelter (Frasch, pg. 71). This could show the person how animals should be treated and how they should be cared for. Allowing the person to do community service in an animal shelter should not be allowed because if you leave a person alone with the animal, they are likely to mistreat that animal since no one is watching them. The only way I would approve this punishment is if they went to jail for a few months or years and they wanted to get the charge off their record. If they wanted to remove the charge or have a lesser sentence, they should take a class or watch the workers at the animal shelter to see how those people treat the animals. Another punishment listed in the article is restitution which means that the person would have to pay the owner of the affected animal (Frasch, pg. 71). If I was an owner, I would want that person to pay for any bills or damaged but I would also like the person to go to jail. If they just pay the owner, they are not learning from their mistakes because they can just go out again and abuse another animal since they got away with any charges the first time. Most of the states have provisions in their laws that can allow them to remove the defendant’s right to owner an animal upon conviction (Frasch, pg. 74). Again, this law or rule is not enough. If the defendant does not go to jail and get a fine, they don’t have to own an animal in order to abuse them. Even though these punishments can be added to the person charges, there are not that strict because it allows the person to find other animals to abuse again. 

Animal abuse is not taken serious in today’s society. The FBI is just now starting to the track animal abuse cases like they would with a homicide. Before this, Randour, a psychologist, found that law enforcement was not keeping track of animal abuse crimes. Animal abuse cases fell under the “other” category when the case was reported to the police office (Itkowitz, prg. 2). The psychologist had to push for the FBI to have a separate category for animal cruelty cases. It was not until 2014 when the FBI agreed to having a separate category for animal abuse cases but they only did that because they saw that serial killers foreshadow their interest in violence by abusing animals at an early age (Itkowitz, prg. 3 and 16). This can show that the law enforcement did not take animal abuse cases seriously and it could possible show that the suspect got away with crime because the “other” category could be crimes that are not serious like destroying someone’s property. If the FBI had this category earlier and interest in finding these suspects, they probably could have saved many animals from being abused multiple times.

There are other people who tried to get the federal law stricter for animal abuse cases like animal fighting and to have stricter laws because there are loopholes within each regulation. For example, Humane Society wanted the federal law against animal fighting to be revised or upgraded because they wanted everyone that was involved in a certain situation to be charged or punished. Wayne Pacelle, who is the president and CEO of the Humane Society of United States, states that animal fighting is becoming an issues because there is a loophole for spectators which prevents them from being arrested (Humane Talk, 1-5 minutes). There should be a regulation or rule that is revised about animal fighting because people who are involved in any way should get punished. If you are a spectator should deserve to go to jail or get a harsh punishment because you could have stopped the person from abusing their animal or stopped the owners of the animals that are going to fight. These loopholes show that people are not being punished for a crime they are committing which helps demonstrate that the regulations and rules that are already passed need to be revised to make them harsher or for law enforcement to actually follow. 

There are people out in today’s world that would disagree with harsh punishments for people who mistreat or abuse animals. For example, in the book, Animal Abuse: Helping Animals and People, Tiplady mentions that there was an ethical concern with the way animals may have been bred and killed for religious sacrifice (Tiplay, pg. 8). There are many people who would follow their religion and their beliefs. Because people follow their religion, they would kill these animals even if they loved animals or did not like hurting animals.  I do not support this claim because I do not know any religion that would allow people to kill these animals. The only way I would accept this fact is if there was a religion that does expect this kind of behavior from their people like the Ancient Egyptians behaved during the 18th century. 

An example of animal abuse that people see or hear about in today’s society is dog fighting. Dog fighting is considered entertainment or sport is most people’s eyes. The reason why people get involved in dog fighting is because they can make over ten thousand dollars (“A Closer Look at Dog Fighting,” subheading 2). These people don’t care about the safety of the dogs. The owners of the animals keep them isolated by spending most the dogs life on short and heavy chains so they won’t reach out and attack another dog or animal (“A Closer Look at Dog Fighting,” subheading 4). The owners also mistreat the dogs by giving legal and illegal substances in order for the animal to perform better during the fight. The owners mishandled the dogs because they crop the ears to a certain length and the tail is cut as close as they can get it to the body of the animal. This should not be allowed because they use techniques that are considered crude and inhumane (“A Closer Look at Dog Fighting,” subheading 4). During a dog fight, both dogs can suffer injures such as puncture wounds, lacerations, blood lose, and broken bones (“A Closer Look at Dog Fighting,” subheading 5). The owners of the animals should be ashamed that they are letting an animal get hurt because most of the dogs probably do not want to fight. The dogs only fight because they are trained to do so. There are laws that are related to dog fighting. The Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act states that any kind of fighting between animals is a felony. Each offense can result in three years in jail and a fine of $250,000. In 2014, The Animal Fighting Spectator Prohibition Act states that if you attend a fight, it is considered a federal offense (“A Closer Look at Dog Fighting,” subheading 6). These laws are helpful to animals but there should be a few more years added to the prison sentence because they let the animals get hurt in every way possible and they probably don’t care that the animal got hurt. 

There are many people and researchers who would also disagree with changing the laws or standards for animal abuse cases. Elizabeth Fisher, who is a professor, tries to explain why people should accept animal testing and not consider it animal abuse. Fisher states that animal research can help find progress in medical research. For example, in the past year, animal research helped many medical breakthroughs like a new treatment for diabetes, Progeria, and possibility of “three-parent IVF treatment”.  Animal testing also helped find why Alzheimer disease is common with Down Syndrome (Fisher, prg. 1-3). In the last paragraph of her article, Fischer discuss how research must pass ethical review explaining how researchers are going use the animals. If the laws and standards for animals become stricter, the research may become harder to get accepted because when the researcher goes through the review, they would have to make sure their testing does not conflict with the laws or standards. This could cause people to hate the harsher punishment because different people wanted animal testing since it helps with medical treatments or medical outbreaks. People wanted to make sure the treatment or drug works before they take it. The experiment on animals will allow the researchers to make sure the drug or treatment will not cause any damaged to people. 

Many people should agree that animals deserve more rights. There needs to be stricter laws or punishments against people who harm animals. The government also needs to revise these laws because there are different loopholes that allow people to get away with the crime or not get charged with much punishment. I understand that if there are stricter laws, researchers may have troubled testing animals and finding medical breakthroughs but I think some of the testing is consider abuse because of certain situations the animals are in like is the place they are staying in clean and are they getting fed. Overall, animals should have almost the same rights as humans because they are just like us. 
