14. Neglect can be more than just forgetting… Those who choose not to spay and neuter are part of the problem. But why is this true? (Jeshua.nace)
15. (Naama) With nearly 8-10 million cats and dogs entering shelters in the U.S. each year about one animal is put down every eight seconds. (Humane Society of Us)
16. When animals are not spayed or neutered it can lead to… Overpopulation
17. Benefits of Spaying or Neutering Population control money attacks and bites safety and damages (Stronks)
38. Works Cited “Animal Abuse and Neglect: The Humane Society of the United States.” Humanesociety.org. The Humane Society of the United States , 2010. Web. 28 Feb. 2010. <http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/abuse_neglect/>. "Forgotten Cats ." forgottencats.org. Forgotten Cats, Inc. , n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2010. <http://forgottencats.org/index.php>. paws.org. Progressive Animal Welfare Society, 1 Dec. 2009. Web. 1 Dec. 2009. <http://www.paws.org>. Sherwell, Phillip. "Peta under fire over claim that it kills most animals left at its US headquarters." Editorial. www.telegraph.co.uk. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news Spayandsave.org. Spay and Save, Inc., n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.spayandsave.org/>. www.aspca.org. N.p., 1 Dec. 2009. Web. 1 Dec. 2009. <http://www.aspca.org/>. www.pet-abuse.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.pet-abuse.com/>.
39. Works Cited Pictures AmazonCARES. Seeking sponsors for “Chanto.” 1 Feb. 2008. Flickr. Yahoo, 20 Oct. 2009. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/49679737@N00/4030508638>. - - -. This is Fresia!!! A typical rescue dog. 10 Nov. 2004. Flickr. Yahoo, 8 Jan. 2006. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/49679737@N00/84280418>. Animal Abuse Classifications Pie Chart. “Animal Abuse Crime Database Statistics - U.S. Abuse Classifications Pie Chart.” Pet-Abuse.com: n. pag. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.pet-abuse.com/pages/cruelty_database/statistics/classifications.php>. “Animal Fighting.” cityofboston.gov. City of Boston , n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.cityofboston.gov/animalcontrol/images/Pit---bloody-face-2.jpg>. Aprilzosia. 9.1.09. 1 Sept. 2009. Flickr. Yahoo, 1 Sept. 2009. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/23668749@N07/3879826456>. Beverley & Pack. Graphic Dead family pet dogs & puppies killed by the city of Denver, CO because of Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) discrimination. 3 Aug. 2006. Flickr. Yahoo, 1 Oct. 2009. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/10101046@N06/3972998620>. Bitmask. target. 13 July 2008. Flickr. Yahoo, 19 July 2008. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/35034348161@N01/2682679414>. Cridland, James. Crowd. 23 June 2007. Flickr. Yahoo, 24 June 2007. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/18378655@N00/613445810>. Daveynin. Four Kittens/Cats . 16 July 2009. Flickr. Yahoo, 16 July 2009. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124370018@N01/3728493482>. David55King. Baited Mouse Trap. 29 Aug. 2008. Flickr. Yahoo, 29 Aug. 2008. Web. 2 May 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/59787340@N00/2808593374>. Dustin and Janae. IMG_3336. 16 July 2006. Flickr. Yahoo, 16 July 2006. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/76611756@N00/190882291>. Eye of einstein. Happy Furry Friday . May 2003. Flickr. Yahoo, 6 Jan. 2006. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/35188692@N00/82914624>. Huffman, Todd. Monetary Exchange. 23 Oct. 2005. Flickr. Yahoo, 27 Oct. 2005. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/99287245@N00/56511462>. Itchys. Yojimbo 02. 16 Apr. 2005. Flickr. Yahoo, 15 Apr. 2005. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/95728739@N00/9522777>. Jeshua.nace. Vetenerian German Shepherd {sic}. 23 Feb. 2005. Flickr. Yahoo, 5 Oct. 2007. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/7152956@N06/1492367504>. Kaibara87. Semola Sleeping . 10 May 2008. Flickr. Yahoo, 12 May 2008. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/34745138@N00/2486594611>. Lincolnian, Brian. “7.” 31 Aug. 2007. Flickr. Yahoo, 5 Sept. 2007. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/79727841@N00/1328426678>. McBain, Brett. DSC_0153. 10 Oct. 2009. Flickr. Yahoo, 10 Oct. 2009. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/35509552@N03/4170623648>.
40. Works Cited Pictures - - -. DSC_0155. 10 Oct. 2009. Flickr. Yahoo, 8 Dec. 2009. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/35509552@N03/4169865705>. Meagan. Wont You Adopt Me? 19 May 2009. Flickr. Yahoo, 19 May 2009. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/7796992@N08/3547588916>. MendocinoAnimalCare. 71 Matt/ADOPTED. 12 Mar. 2009. Flickr. Yahoo, 13 Mar. 2009. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/36179242@N02/3350314091>. - - -. 27 Chester / 112087 / ADOPTED. 12 Mar. 2009. Flickr. Yahoo, 12 Mar. 2009. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/36179242@N02/3350128473>. Mtarlock. Sunday-9. 27 Sept. 2009. Flickr. Yahoo, 27 Sept. 2009. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/21503112@N07/3961016764>. Naama. 8. 24 June 2005. Flickr. Yahoo, 24 June 2005. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/83676844@N00/21293373>. nydailynews.com. NY Daily News , n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/03/08/amd_dog.jpg>. Pinkmoose. Green and Yellow AntiFreezeWalmart. 3 Feb. 2009. Flickr. Yahoo, 4 Feb. 2009. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/82072056@N00/ 3252951636>. Plasticrevolver. puzzled kitty. 10 June 2006. Flickr. Yahoo, 10 June 2006. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/31474531@N00/164351244>. *sean. stray . 4 Jan. 2005. Flickr. Yahoo, 5 Feb. 2008. Web. 13 Apr. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/90483352@N00/2244059430>. Self-portrait_Girl. Change Begins Here. 8 Nov. 2009. Flickr. Yahoo, 9 Nov. 2009. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/36176391@N07/4089225446>. Steakpinball. My Trusty Gavel. 17 Feb. 2009. Flickr. Yahoo, 19 Feb. 2009. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/60588258@N00/3293465641>. Stronks, Jaap. Vlootjebij de dierenarts. 19 Nov. 2007. Flickr. Yahoo, 19 Nov. 2007. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/23392683@N00/2046925974>. Superde1uxe. Statue of Liberty . 23 Nov. 2008. Flickr. Yahoo, 29 Nov. 2008. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/8213286@N07/3068927927>. Taberandrew. Penn Street. 20 June 2009. Flickr. Yahoo, 21 June 2009. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/88442983@N00/3649630072>. Vinni123. 62/365? 11 Nov. 2009. Flickr. Yahoo, 11 Dec. 2009. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/60058260@N00/4176711991>. Woodleywonderworks. Kindergarten is fun. 2 Oct. 2008. Flickr. Yahoo, 3 Oct. 2008. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/31474531@N00/164351244>. Y, Gregor. Stray Pack. 17 June 2006. Flickr. Yahoo, 17 June 2006. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/96552722@N00/169095222>.
Editor's Notes
Different types, relevance, a little bit about the laws, and some ways for prevention along with what I did as my application.Slide Time: 5 seconds
There are two types of abuse, passive and active.-Passive is done mostly without cruel intentions. This means that the people are not always deliberately trying to hurt their animals but in the long run do. Passive abuse consists of neglect, abandonment, and hoarding. -Active is done with intent to hurt. The word “active” describes this perfectly as the actions committed are without remorse. Active abuse consists of all types of physical abuse towards an animal:BeatingThrowingBurning Poisoning ChokingDrowningShooting FightingHangingStabbingBestiality And many others. (www.ASPCA.org…Cruelty Glossary)(www.Pet-Abuse.com…Animal Cruelty)Now while it may seem that active is clearly the more terrible form of abuse that is not always the case. In fact passive abuse can easily be just as bad and sometimes incredibly worse.Slide Time: 1 minute 30 seconds
Photos:Crowd- (Cridland)7- (Lincolnian)4- (superde1uxe)In 2009 there was 747 cases of animal cruelty in the United StatesNumber of occurrences state wideIn Pennsylvania alone there was 47 documented cases.Tied with California for the highest number of cases in one stateThat is only what is documented. They do not take into account any of the cases of abuse or neglect that happen behind closed doors. If we were able to record every case who knows how high these numbers would reach. (www.HumaneSociety.org… Animal Protection)Slide Time: 1 min
The chart shows how many types and classifications of animal abuse there are. It also shows how prevalent each type is. The top five are neglect being the most common as it ranks in at 32.5%, shooting is second with 11.7%, hoarding a lose third with 11.1%, fighting in fourth with 9.4%, and in fifth beating at 6.8%. Two others that I thought to be particularly disturbing are stomping and hanging. (www.Pet-Abuse.com…Statistics)Slide Time: 2 min
(www.ASPCA.org…Cruelty Glossary)(www.Pet-Abuse.com…Animal Cruelty)Active abuse consists of any type of physical abuse towards an animal. This type of abuse is meant to harm the animal and empower the person doing it. Since almost any type of physical abuse can be classified as active I decided only to speak about three. The three are fighting, poisoning, and shooting.Slide Time: 1 min
Dog Fighting is a serious type of active abuse. With this type of abuse dogs are specifically bred in order to fight. This is why pit bulls get such a bad name as they are often used in dog fights. The dogs are tormented and beaten in order to make them more violent. Dog fighting just like other types of animal fighting usually happens in urban areas and is becoming more prevalent. Bets are placed on the fights in order to generate a crowd and money. They are in closed in areas making it a fight for survival for the dog as most if not all fights end in death. Most of the time if the dog loses it is killed and even the winning animal can sometimes end up dying from it’s wounds. The owners of these animals are all about the money and show no compassion towards the animal. (www.HumaneSociety.org…Dogfighting)Photo: (Dustin and Janae)
Antifreeze is used in cars to keep the water that cools your engine from freezing as well as keeping your car running cooler in hot weather. Despite what it was made for Antifreeze is commonly used to poison “unwanted” animals. This poisoning usually happens when animals are left to wander around and get into peoples yards or gardens. In order to rid their yards of these animals they set out things such as antifreeze. Antifreeze attracts animals as the sweet taste is enjoyable for them. Although it may taste good to the animal it is incredibly deadly as even one teaspoon is enough to kill. The reason why poisoning is so common is that it is hard to file a case against it as antifreeze could be spilled by accident. (www.Pet-Abuse.com…Poisoning)
Just like poisoning, shooting is common when animals are left to wander. People become irritated by these animals on their property and believe shooting is the way to solve this problem. What is so sad about this is that in many places it is not illegal to shoot an animal if it is on your property. Also some get away with it by claiming self defense.(www.Pet-Abuse.com…Shooting)
-Neglect is a type of passive abuse and the most common type of animal abuse as 32% of all animal abuse is neglect.-It consists of many things but in all it is due to ignorance and an owner simply not caring. -It ranges from forgetting to feed and give water to your pet all the way to leaving them out in the cold chained up for hours on end. This is not to say that kennel training and other types of training that leave pets alone are a bad thing but when care is simply not given that is where the problems can arise. Some types of neglect are things like starvation,dehydration, and even parasite infection. Animals who are neglected can easily be just as beaten up and close to death as those animals who were actively abused. -The animal can either be taken away from an owner or they can be educated and given a second chance, depending on the severity. (www.HumaneSociety.org… Abuse)Slide Time: 1 minute 30 seconds
Neglect can lead to these animals becoming emaciated, meaning you can see their ribs, back bones, pelvic bones with ease. They have absolutely no body fat and are basically on their last thread. Emaciated is the worst of all the categorizations of starvation which means any animal in that category is at the highest degree of risk. The stages for starvation are underweight, thin, very thin, and emaciated. At this stage without immediate help the animal doesn’t have much chance.These animals would be categorized as emaciated as the ribs are clearly visible. Parasites and diseases can cause loss of fur and other detrimental things for an animals health, this is the case for the dog on the right. (www.Pet-Abuse.com…Animal Neglect)Slide Time: 1 minute
Hoarding is a type of passive abuse. Hoarders are not always bad people. While most hoarders are actually elderly women not every hoarder is your average “crazy cat lady” like the one that you see on “The Simpsons”. Although some psychologists are trying to get a clinical diagnoses for it, but as of right now not enough data is available.The quote by Gary Patronek, director of the Center for Animals and Public Policy at Tufts University, means that these people become obsessed with their animals and feel the need to have more and more. These people can have good intent but can just keep too many animals to care for causing them to become ill and neglected. Theyusually allow the conditions of the household and their animals to become awful making for disease and death. These animals have no chance as they are forced to live with little attention in their own filth. These people do not realize they are in fact hurting these animals and most of the time deny their pets are in bad shape. Depending on how bad the situation is animals can be removed or just checked on every so often.(www.ASPCA.org…Hoarding)(www.Pet-Abuse.com… Hoarding)Slide Time: 2 min
Abandonment is a type of passive abuse. It is due to many different types of things but a large majority of the time happens with moving.Some families move without taking their pets due to restrictions of their new household or out of sheer carelessness.These people feel as if just because they cannot take their pet with them it is okay to leave them on their own. Therefore they are leaving them to fend for themselves with no food, no water, no shelter. (www.ASPCA.org…Cruelty Glossary)Slide Time : 45 seconds
People do not realize but if you do not spay or neuter your pet it can be atype of neglect. This is not to always the case, if you are capable of taking care of the animals offspring or are a breeder who is finding them safe and reliable homes. Breeders are very capable of this and can control their animal. Although some people try to avoid these procedures just because of the money or ignorance. If the animal is kept inside or closely watched it is ok but neglect can occur when an animal is not spayed/neutered and left without being monitored. Therefore those who do not choose to spay or neuter and let their animals run free are leading to the deaths of even more animals.(www.PAWS.org…Pet Overpopulation)Slide Time: 1 min
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Photo #1- (Itchys)Photo#2- (Gregor Y)Photo #3- (Beverley & Pack)Here are some statistics of why over population is such a big problem-one pair of cats could potentially produce 420,000 kittens in seven years, and in six years, one female dog and her offspring could give birth to 67,000 puppies.Because of this-4-5 million homeless animals are put to death in U.S. shelters every year.-With this many animals at shelters the chance of adoption diminishes as well as the chance for them to live a long life, therefore more and more animals are euthanized at shelters. (www.HumaneSociety.org… Overpopulation)Slide Time: 1 min 30 seconds
The number one benefit of taking your animal to the vet and getting them spayed or neutered is population control but there are also some other benefits. Cuts down on communities spending of what can be millions of dollars on care for abandoned or neglected animals each year. It also leads to fewer taxes spent on caring for homeless animals. When breeders are not responsible or trained it leads to things like dog attacks and bites. Strays can get into garbage cans or destroy wildlife or private property.(www.PAWS.org…Pet Overpopulation)Slide Time: 1 min
When I decided that I was going to do my project on animal abuse I first had to come up with an idea for what to do for my application. At the time the only organization that I knew had to do with animal abuse and welfare was the ASPCA. My neighbor’s daughter had worked with an organization for a while and when she heard I was thinking of doing my project on animal abuse she volunteered to help me get involved. -I have gone on many outings to catch/ help find homes for straysThis is done through working for an organization called Spay and SaveSpay and Save is a local organization (only five county’s wide) devoted to general animal welfare and education. The volunteers try their best to find truly safe and reliable homes for rescued animals. The main goal of this organization is to help people learn about the problems, to rescue as many homeless animals as possible, and to help give them a good life.(www.spayandsave.org)Slide Time: 1 min 30
Before I can move on to what I have done it is important to know a little more about Spay and Save.They get their funds mostly from donations All donations and money given are spent on the animals as it is all volunteer based. They currently have 45 rescued cats and 6 rescued dogs up for adoption.The organization works with local veterinarians who offer discounts and spay and neuter almost all animals brought in, this is done to slow overpopulation. In fact my contact works directly with one veterinarian who on certain days will perform 60 spays and neuters at an extremely low price.They hold rescued pets available for adoption and/or display information for those animals at PETCO, Pet Valu, Perk Valley Pet Eatery, Paws at Play, Braxtons animal works, MotoPhoto, and the King of Prussia Pet Resort.(www.spayandsave.org)Slide Time: 1 min 30
In order to slow overpopulation, Spay and Save uses its volunteers to go to surrounding areas and trap stray cats. My particular contact goes to Norristown to do this and for part of my application I have joined her in this. The trapping is only done in areas with large amounts of strays who desperately need the help. The trapping is safe and does not harm the animal as we just set up traps like the one above with food and wait for the cats to go in and trigger the cage to close. Once the cats are caught we take them to the vet and help find them a home. And although this may sound pretty simple some of the cats were literally street smart and knew not to walk right in, so sometimes we would have to wait a while before catching any of them.
For the past five months I have been volunteering every Tuesday, Wednesday, and occasionally Thursday nights at Pet Valu in Royersford. The volunteering that I do there is part of my volunteering with Spay and Save. The difference is that my job there is just to go up to the store and take care of the animals they are housing. This means feeding, cleaning the cages, and basically whatever else the animal needs. These animals, like the cat above named Toby, have all been rescued by the organization and are awaiting a new home. Usually the animals stay until they are adopted or fostered by one of the organizations volunteers. Although sometimes they are switched between different participating stores if one area is adopting more cats than another. For example if our Petco is pumping out cats we would take one from the Royersford location that has been there for a while and see if he could get adopted there instead. What made this part of my volunteering interesting to me was that it was just me and the animals I took care of which allowed me to see these animals up close and personal. It allowed me to see that these animals once given proper care were no different than any other, they were friendly, clean animals.Photos: taken by meSlide Time: 1 min 30
Fostering the cats once they have been fixed is very important as these animals are truly homeless. What fostering means in this context is that volunteers who work with the organization house and care for the medical bills of the cats until they are either ready to be adopted or become healthy. Once my application got rolling and I realized how helpful fostering is as not too many people are willing to take in stray cats I was encouraged to do so. I believed it would help my application and be pretty fun along the way. This did not work out too well with my mom and after many attempts at persuasion she figured our dog and two cats at home was already too much. Slide Time: 1 min
Photo #1 and #2- (MendocinoAnimalCare)The purpose of adoption days is to get as many pets adopted to safe and reliable homes as possible. Adoption days are usually successful as they give potential adopters a chance to see the animals and hear their story. They get to see what these animals have been through and give them a second chance. Adoption days areheld at participating pet shops who allow Spay and Save to come in and try and get their rescued pets adopted. At our own Petco they are usually held on the third Saturday of each month. Spay and Save also interviews each of the people who are looking to adopt in order to make sure the home is reliable and safe and the animal is not just going to end up on the street or abused again. I have been to four adoption days at our own Petco which allows me to follow up not only on the animals the organization has saved, but animals I have helped save myself.Slide Time: 1 min
Photos:Photo #1- (eye of einstein)Photo #2- (taberandrew)-In order to truly show you what I have been doing for my application I need to share some of my experience. So I’ll talk about my first time out helping strays. When I found out we were going to Norristown to do this I figured I knew what to expect, I was wrong. My contact works with a woman who lives in the neighborhood and who helps feed and take care of those animals that she can, but asks for help from organizations like the one I am currently volunteering for. This woman took us on her “route” to find all the cats that needed the most help. Now I knew these animals were abandoned and on there own and that some areas were pretty bad but what I saw was awful.In some areas I saw five to ten cats living under just one porch. It felt like every alley we drove up or passed another ten cats were just wandering around. The sad part was that these animals are not just ordinary strays; they live in conditions that are unfit environments, leaving them with problems such as fleas, eye mites, and many other possible illnesses. Not only that but these animals are faced with things every day that are detrimental to their well being such as; abuse, fights with other cats, getting hit by cars, and much more. Despite all this, what shocked me the most was the fact that some of the people were so accustomed to this and unaware of how terrible the problem is that they seemed to not have a care. We obviously don’t have the ability or resources to help all these animals but do what we can, that day we took in three animals to the vet.Slide Time: 2 min 30 seconds
A little brighter side to the same story. About two weeks later I again volunteered at an adoption day at our PETCO. I got there and to my surprise one of the cats I had actually went out and caught on that first day was ready to be adopted. The cat was all black with a white stomach and we had given her the name Venus the day we brought her in. They bring in so many cats that they name them by going through the alphabet giving them a name corresponding to the next letter of the alphabet. That day she got adopted. Seeing everything go full circle was pretty inspiring, knowing that they don’t just get thrown in the system and that I helped definitely encouraged me to continue my work.
As I was doing all my research and volunteering I began to feel as if I was missing something vital in my project. Almost like there was something stopping me from continuing. Then I realized it was cause I felt like I was not seeing the entire picture as I was just seeing the before and after. Slide Time: 1 min 30
In order to find the “in between” I joined my contact when she brought 6 feral cats we had trapped to Forgotten Cats. Forgotten Cats offers low cost spay and neuter clinics for cats in the surrounding area. We went to the one in Willow Grove and when we got there I was a little stunned. I had heard that when we brought in a lot of cats at one time it was more cost efficient to go to Forgotten Cats because they deal with a large number of cats at a time, this could not be more true. There had to be fifty plus cats all waiting to be spayed or neutered. Although usually my contact just drops off the cats and returns we stuck around as the clinic encourages all volunteers. Our job consisted of prepping the cats for surgery which basically was cleaning the cages and setting up. Overall seeing all these cats and knowing there is still many more out there definitely helped me realize how vast this problem truly is. Photo: taken by me
With all these facts the question that faces us is why is this done? No one can say exactly why each act is done but for the majority of the occurrences it is due to a couple of things.-to control an animal in order to get a sense of power if they hurt the weaker animal they feel superior -to retaliate against an animal -to retaliate against another person thinking if they hurt the animal it is also hurting the person-to satisfy a prejudice against a species or breed some people feel as if some types (pitbulls) automatically deserve it as they are violent animals -to express anger through an animal -to enhance one's own aggressiveness -to generate amusement some people actually get enjoyment out of abusing animals -to release anger from a person to an animal - Or sometimes it is done out of ignorance, some people do not realize they are doing it.Slide Time: 2 min
If I were to go through every law I would be able to have an entire presentation. So instead I found something very interesting. Mississippi, Idaho, North and South Dakota are the only four states in the United States that do not have a felony sentence for animal cruelty acts. Perpetrators in those four states can only receive mild sentences.I also took a look at the "Humane State Ranking," is a report rating all 50 states on a wide range of animal protection laws that deals with pets, animal cruelty and fighting, wildlife, animals in research, horses, and farm animals. On that report Pennsylvania was ranked 10th out of the 50 states even though they were tied for first with the number of occurrences. California on the other hand actually took initiative as even though they were tied for first with us they are also first on this animal protection law ranking. (www.HumaneSociety.org… Animal Protection)Slide Time: 30 seconds
Stopping animal abuse is not just for the sake of the animals. In fact it has been shown that those who possess these antisocial and aggressive behaviors will continue to act out.A 1997 study conducted by Northeastern University and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals found that over a 20-year period, a group of individuals who had abused animals as youths were five times more likely to commit violent crimes, four times more likely to commit property crimes and three times more likely to have drug or disorderly conduct offenses than a matched group of non animal abusers. On top of all that the FBI has been known to look at past animal abuse records when profiling a serial killer. (www.PAWS.org…Human Violence Connection)Slide Time: 1 min
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Education can be vital to preventing animal abuse. Through humane education people do not just learn about the problems of animal abuse but they are also taught to avoid and prevent it. Humane education is beginning to be brought up at a younger age and continued in order to help stress it’s importance. In learning this many types of abuse such as neglect are not as easily overlooked. In fact, the PAWS Humane Education Program is proving this to be true as they have worked their program with young children with some impressive results. Two examples are in a pre/post quiz they gave after their humane education course. The questions were: "It is okay to keep dogs on chains all the time."Pretest: 21% agree / Post-test: 5% agree"Dogs and cats should be spayed and neutered."Pretest: 14% agree / Post-test: 80% agreeWith improvements like this it is obvious that humane education definitely needs to be stressed to help this problem. (www.PAWS.org…Live Humanely)Slide Time: 30 seconds
Lend a hand and get involved with an organization. Volunteers are always welcomed for any cause especially for organizations that are all non profit like Spay and Save. Slide Time: 15 sec
My impact is not as large as I would like it to be as this problem cannot be solved just by volunteering. Yes I have saved many animals in the months that I havebeen volunteering and yes I have made somewhat of a difference. The reality ofthis though is that even if I were to do this every day and get even ten morepeople to join me the problem would still be too vast. It hit me that everytime I went out to rescue or take care of hopeful adoptees there was alwaysmore that we couldn’t get or more that were waiting for our help. The more I volunteered the more obvious this became. When you can go out on aMonday and bring in eight cats and go back out the next Sunday and still seethe streets littered with these poor animals it definitely opens your eyes. This is why itstruck me so bluntly that there must be more to just physically going out andhelping these animals. That was when I realized where the help is reallyneeded. As much as the animals out there need our help the only way thisproblem will be helped substantially or even someday solved is throughcontinued humane education. With that in mind I hope that my project as a whole has shown you how big this problem is, how relevant it is to us, and also how we can all do our own part to help. Slide Time: 1 min 30
