My Argumentative Research Paper

:warning: :bangbang: WARNING: This post contains animal abuse, killings and/or cruelty to animals in general. Viewer discretion is advised :bangbang: :warning:

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Greetings!

    Blue here ^^ I’ll be talking about the effects of animal cruelty, the history of animal cruelty and more! This was a writing assignment I did for my college English class, and I got a 96 percent on it! Hope you enjoy!

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Help End All Violence Against Animals Today!

Essay Introduction

    “The Humane Society of the United States estimates that nearly 1 million animals a year are abused or killed in episodes of domestic violence. Why should we care about animal cruelty? We are the voices for animals because they cannot speak up for themselves. People should treat animals with the same respect as any human on earth and not harm them in any way, shape, or form.

Background Paragraphs

    Animal cruelty represents wide range of behaviors that are harmful toward animals -- from beating animals with hands or weapons -- to even killing animals in a malicious way. Accepting this definition, therefore, suggests that animal neglect (where an animal is not given food, water, or shelter in a certain amount of time) even when committed is still a form of cruelty. According to the ASPCA, or American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, have been fighting against animal cruelty since 1866. The Legislature of New York State was the first to establish any anti-cruelty laws Domestic violence is one of the main causes of cruelty toward animals, whether that is divorces to even homicides. The most common animals abused or killed are dogs, cats, livestock and horses.

    Specific examples of animal cruelty include the following: Poaching, which is an act of the illegal capturing and/or killing of animals to sell their body parts, such as elephant tusks or rhinoceros horns, in order to exchange for money; Dogfighting, cockfighting and bullfighting are considered as organized cruelty; puppy mill -- or puppy farms -- are breeding facilities where dogs are quickly bred while living in poor conditions. In the exotic pet trade, exotic pets usually refer to animals that are not your average dog or cat. Exotic animals would include tigers, wolves, birds, reptiles, and anything else. Vegan, or vegetarian, is where people eat only plant-based protein instead of animal products. Factory farms are farms that produce animal-based products, such as meats (steak, pork, bacon, chicken, etc) for the agricultural industry. Without any animal cruelty laws put into place, factory farms and puppy mills would not be caring about the health and well-beings of animals by providing veterinary care for them.

First body paragraph

    Animals should be supposed to be a part of life on Earth. This means that humans are held able and responsible for any environmental changes that happen to animals, whether they are domesticated or wildlife. Animal cruelty can have devastating environmental effects, such as climate change, water shortages and bad quality, and the loss of topsoil. In order for them to survive, animals need fresh water that is good quality. In particular, during the case of United States v. Sinskey where a meat-packing factory doubled the number of animals it raised which created more waste than the wastewater treatment plant can handle. As a result, a violation of the Clean Water Act occurred in the process.

Second body paragraph

    If someone harms an animal, it will harm other humans too. For many years, there have not been reports in the past that mention people developing any psychiatric disorders due to animal cruelty in their childhoods. Today, one major psychiatric disorder is called “antisocial personality disorder” in which it starts as aggression towards people and then leads to the cruelty of animals. Other ways that perpetrators are being evaluated for psychiatric disorders is when he or she may have had animal cruelty in their childhood (Gleyzer 1).

3rd Body Paragraph

    Fighting for the lives of animals is the right thing to do morally because it gives them another chance at having a life. Studies do suggest, that on some level we hold animals responsible for their harmful dispositions (e.g., dogs who bite deserve less kindness than dogs who do not bite), particularly when they are directed at human beings (Piazza 122). Does this mean, however, that biting dogs or poisonous snakes are less deserving of our attention and ?

Counterargument #1

    Some believe it is very much okay to beat or even kill animals. Just because some say it is fine to be cruel towards animals, and therefore, nobody should be cruel toward animals: “Unlike small time farmers, factory farms often fail to treat their animals with even minimal amounts of care. They are notorious for cramming far too many animals into far too little space” (Landis-Marinello, 147-148). This explains that factory farms and animal breeding facilities, such as puppy mills, do not take good care of their animals as people cram animals into small cages, and that must be stopped immediately.

Counterargument #2

    Some think that animal cruelty is not such a big deal, but other issues including remote learning in the COVID-19 pandemic is a big deal. This is a hasty generalization fallacy because it is an example used without any evidence that animal cruelty is not being a big deal. It is a big deal to animal rights activists.

How to solve (and/or prevent) animal cruelty

    The first way to solve this problem of animal cruelty is that many animal rights activists have started to go vegan because they fight and advocate for animals. Specifically, those animal activists have asked factory workers to go vegetarian, or to produce less animal-based products. People working in the factory farm industry should decrease the amount of animal-based meat production. In order to stop cruelty to farm animals used for agricultural needs, factories must decrease deforestation and slow down production. If people do not want their animals, by any means they should just surrender their pets to shelters so they can be put up for adoption.

Essay conclusion

    In its entirety, animal cruelty is a huge problem, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, people lost their jobs and they end up dumping pets onto the streets, or surrendering them to animal shelters. Not only animal cruelty is considered a crime, but also a felony. The number of animals beaten, killed and neglected is currently out of control. If animals are treated better, with more respect and kindness, then human beings will end up with a far better future!”

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Adios!

If you have any opinions about my essay or the topic(s) mentioned, feel free to comment! You may also ask questions and bring up concerns to me via PM. Thank you.

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Photo Credits

•The animal cruelty awareness (the ones with words) photos used came from Pinterest

Statistics/Evidence + Info Credits

https://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/full/10.2460/javma.238.1.31. Accessed 16 April 2021.

www.aspca.org/about-us/history-of-the-aspca

www.animallaw.info/sites/default/files/Asset%20Forfeiture%20and%20Animal%20Cruelty.pdf

aminoapps.vertvonline.info/profile/Alan-Felthous/publication/11269072_Animal_cruelty_and_psychiatric_disorders/links/00463527013ca5477a000000/Animal-cruelty-and-psychiatric-disorders.pdf

www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-water-act

Freeman, Carrie Packwood. "Framing Animal Rights in the “Go Veg” Campaigns of U.S.”

https://ladyfreethinker.org/5-reasons-everyone-should-care-about-animal-abuse/