Rehabilitation of Abused Animals

For our last post, we wanted to talk about the rehabilitation of abused animals. When we interviewed Mr. Stress from the animal shelter, we asked how long it takes until an abused animal feels comfortable around humans again. He said that it depends on the animal. Sometimes they take days, sometimes they take months.

There are places that have horses, dogs and cats that are abused.

One horse there was abused. She is blind in one eye and her previous owners had a bad saddle, and it hurt her. This is a case of accidental abuse. Now that she's at Sunnyside, even though she has a saddle that fits her, she associates saddles with pain, and doesn't sit still when you put it on.

But a dog there lost one of his legs. He's completely fine now, though (Other than the missing leg) and is great around people. He's friendly, and unless you were on the right side you couldn't even tell that he only had three legs.

This shows how differently each individual animal recovers from abuse.

What Is Dog Fighting?

The crowd's roar dulled to a hum as the next two fighters appeared. The previous match had been short, as one contestant quickly outmatched his opponent, mauling him badly and tearing off an ear. But this final fight matched two skilled and highly respected combatants. They eyed each other eagerly from across the pit, muscles tensed in anticipation. Spectators came to the edge of their seats. Fathers lifted children to their shoulders for a better view as the referee stepped to the center, called the dogs to their scratch lines and yelled, "Let go!" A cheer arose as the dogs charged across the pit and slammed into each other, teeth flashing as they sought a vulnerable target. After half an hour of fighting, the brindle looked beaten. Wounded and panting, he turned away from his opponent. The referee called the turn, and, when neither dog had a hold on the other, the handlers picked them up. The dogs were returned to their scratch lines and held. Both were breathing hard and bleeding from their bite wounds. Because he made the turn, the brindle would be released first. If he failed to attack now, he would lose. "Let go," the judge called again. The brindle was exhausted and badly hurt—but he was a game dog. Responding to an impulse bred into him over generations and nurtured through training, he stumbled across his scratch line toward his opponent. The other dog’s handler released him with the encouragement, "Finish him off, Bo." Bo knocked the brindle to the ground, seeking a hold on his throat. Though getting the worst of the fight, the brindle managed to grab Bo’s right front leg in his powerful jaws. As he bit down hard and twisted, the snap of breaking bone was heard. Bo lurched backward and then turned away from the brindle. Now it was Bo’s turn to scratch. Barely able to stand in his corner, the brindle strained against his handler’s arms, eager to continue the fight. But when he was released, Bo would not cross the pit. The referee called, “One…. Two… Time!” The crowd cheered for the brindle. He would die from his injuries an hour later, but he had won his fight. Bo’s handler spit on the ground. He had a lot of money on this match. Muttering, “Worthless cur,” he dragged Bo out of the barn and toward his truck, where a shotgun waited.
 http://www.aspca.org/fight-animal-cruelty/dog-fighting/history-of-dog-fighting.aspx

History of Dog Fighting
Dog fighting has been a common sport in America for a long time. Fights like the one above could happen anywhere, at any time, with any people.

About the Dogs
Certain dogs are bred to do certain things. Take a border collie, for example. Bred to herd, and herding will always be in their blood, it's their instinct.

http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/download/6002/BCHT_dog_running_past_sheep.jpg

And its the same for fighting dogs. A fight between two puppies will be over quickly as soon as one submite to the other's dominance

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l92jfjlp6l1qzegudo1_500.jpg

And there are seldom injuries.
But fighting dogs are dogs that have been genetically engineered and changed so that in a fight, they don't back down when the other dog submits. They are bred to continue fighting, even if they are injured.

But its important to realize that not all pitbulls and other fighting dogs, fight.

http://www.modcloth.com/store/images/Cute_Pitbull.jpg

http://canisbonus.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/pitbull.jpg

Although a lot of them do, some don't.

Another Form of Animal Abuse-Puppy Mills

Puppies. Everyone loves them, right? But almost no one knows what happens to a lot of dogs before they get to the pet stores to get adopted.
Puppy mills.

If puppy mills are so horrible, why do they continue to grow?
Well, like we said before, a lot of people don't know about them. They find an adorable, cuddly puppy that they just absolutely have to have, or they go to websites and find the most amazingly cute puppy that they've ever seen and adopt, not knowing what goes on before.

What exactly are puppy mills?
Hundreds of thousands of puppies are raised in puppy mills each year. Puppy mills breed female dogs as soon as they can be bred, and every year after. Usually around the time they turn five and can't be bred any more, they are killed; usually shot.
There are hundreds of puppies in each mill, and they are kept in small, cramped cages, with inadequate food and water. They are not heated in the winter, or cooled in the summer. Many dogs die of heat stroke and freezing to death.
Because of the lack of space, and the amount of dogs in each cage, many are killed or injured in fights with other dogs.

Why are they so bad?

http://www.sonomapets.com/?p=791

Puppy mills keep their dogs in tiny, cramped cages. They don't provide enough food or water, and in order to earn more money, they very seldom have vet checks. Food is bought in bulk by the truckload, and is very poor quality.

Dogs in puppy mills often have little to no human contact, and could be very mean. Also, because they aren't seen by vets and are kept in such filthy conditions, they have emotional or physical problems that could cost the family thousands of dollars.


~Hannah, Maya, Reanna

Reflection

The goal of our project was to raise awareness about abused animals. We believe that we can change the way animals are treated in our community. First, we had to research animal abuse by looking in books, on websites, in magazine articles, and in newspapers. Our group also surveyed ten adults and ten children about what they thought of animal abuse. Then we interviewed a man that works as an animal investigator named Mr. Stress. He works with abused animals every day. After that, we used our information to write our final paper.

After completing this research project, our group's view on animal abuse has changed. When we first started, we thought animal abuse was just being mean to an animal. Now we realize that it really is much more than that. We learned that testing on animals in laboratories and neglecting animals are also forms of abuse. Even having too many pets, or hoarding, is abuse. (http://animalabuseisbad.blogspot.com/2011/05/what-is-hoarding.html)

~Hannah, Maya, Reanna

What is Hoarding?

When we first started this project, we thought that animal abuse was just hitting animals. Now we realize that there are many other forms: hoarding being one of them.

What is hoarding?
Hoarding is having too many pets and not providing proper care. "Animal hoarding involves keeping higher than usual numbers of animals as pets without having the ability to properly house or care for them." wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_hoarding

 "Animal hoarding or collecting is an obsessive/compulsive disorder in which an individual amasses a large number of animals (sometimes more than a 100); fails to provide for the animals' most basic physical and social needs, including food, water, shelter, veterinary care, and sanitary living." http://www.ontariospca.ca/1-glossary.shtml

Why do people hoard?
Well, the answer to that is pretty complicated.  There are newer studies that are leading toward attachment disorders in conjunction with personality disorders, paranoia, depression and other mental illnesses. Some animal hoarders began hoarding after a loss or traumatic event, while others think that they are "rescuers" who save animals from a harder life on the streets.


Not all people who have many pets are hoarders!
Hoarding means having a lot of pets and not being able to take care of them.
"A person may have a dozen animals, and all are spayed and neutered and provided with regular veterinary care and a sanitary environment. This person would not be an animal hoarder." http://www.aspca.org/fight-animal-cruelty/animal-hoarding.aspx

Is hoarding common?
There are around 900-1200 new cases of animal hoarding every year. These cases involve about a quarter million pets including cats, dogs to rodents, birds, reptiles, exotics and even farm animals.

~Hannah, Maya, Reanna

The Big Question...Why?

There is one question that really puzzles most people...

Why do people abuse animals?

Well, there are really three main reasons.

1) A lot of people abuse animals by accident. It might seem like it would be hard to not realize that you are abusing an animal, but a lot of people just don't.
For example. People sometimes get pets and have no idea how to take care of them. They don't know what food to get them, how often to exercise them, and where to keep them.
2) The second main reason, is abusers know what they are doing, but don't continue. An example of this is a group of kids in a neighborhood throwing rocks at a cat, or shooting a dog with a Bebe gun. A lot of times, it's a person (or people) trying to show off.
3) The third is the worst: People who abuse animals because they enjoy abusing things, or because it makes them feel superior or powerful. There are a few reasons why people do this. A lot of times, the people want to have control over others. They abuse animals to have control over the animal, or to have control over a person who loves the animal. An example of this would be a husband abusing a dog to show his wife what would happen if she didn't obey him.

Those are a few reasons why people abuse animals.

~Hannah, Maya, Reanna

What Can You Do?

There really are a lot of things that people can do that can help animals:

1) Volunteer at an Animal Shelter (i.e. The Humane Society, Last Hope, etc.)

2) If you see an animal being abused, don't just watch. Do something. (Like..call 911, your local animal shelter, or animal control.)

3) Don't buy products that have cruel or unusual tests on animals!

4) Don't hoard. This means to not have an excess number of pets. "Animal hoarding involves keeping higher than usual numbers of animals as pets without having the ability to properly house or care for them"

5) Only get a pet if you are sure you can handle it. Pets are a big responsibility, and require care and love. If you buy a pet and decide that you can't take care of it, take it to a NO KILL shelter.

6) Spend time with your pet. Make sure that you always play with your pet so that they feel loved and taken care of.

7) Don't get a dog from puppy mills. They are really bad places for dogs. Get a dog from a breeder or a shelter.

8) Having trouble deciding between no kill and normal shelters? Take a look at all of the pets that they have there. People tend to avoid no kill shelters because, well, they don't kill the animals. But then they have to spend their whole lives in a cage.

This is an example of a puppy mill.

http://aatheory.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/puppy_20100219_aatheory.png

9) Even though everyone loves cute, cuddly kitties, and adorable fuzzy puppies, take a look at older pets too. Most people go for the babies, so a lot of times the adults are kept in shelters for a long time. It isn't exactly abuse, but it isn't good, either.

What is Animal Abuse?

> “Acts of violence or neglect perpetrated against animals are considered animal cruelty,”

This is the definition of animal abuse.

Animal abuse is more than just hitting animals. Animal abuse is cruelty. Neglect. Hoarding. Carelessness. Animal abuse is not taking care of your pets when they are sick. Beating them until they bleed.

~Hannah, Maya, Reana

Lab Testing

Some people consider lab testing abuse. Do you? Yeah, we know that animals have played key roles in wiping out some diseases, but there are really some pretty horrible tests out there. We don't exactly like animal testing, but we know that there are some that are necessary. The ones that we don't need, those are the ones people want to stop.

One example of an unnecessary test is with monkeys. Baby monkeys are taken from their mothers at a young age in order to determine weather they suffer from not having a mother. We know, the test doesn't sound too bad, but the monkeys often grow up with psychological problems, and are not the same emotionally as other monkeys.
Well, this test can, and should, stop. The answer is really pretty obvious because so many people have done the test so many times-yes, monkeys need a mother.

Another thing about the labs is not the tests themselves, but the conditions the animals are kept in.
Smaller animals, like rats, are usually kept in plastic bins about the size of a shoebox, with bedding covering the bottom, and wire on top.
Slightly larger animals, like Guinea pigs, are usually kept in the same type of cage, but bigger.
Larger animals like dogs, sheep, and primates, are usually kept in wire cages. There is usually one animal per cage, and they are kept separate.
There are laws that insure that the animals are kept warm enough, and have food and water, and the cages are just big enough, but animals are kept in the cages their whole lives except for when they are being tested on.


When animals are being tested on, approximately half of the test are painful, and the other half aren't.
Last year, out of about 489,300 animals that were tested on, some were given anesthesia so they wouldn't feel pain, but about 104,000 weren't given anything to reduce pain during the test. That might not seem like a lot, but it is, and some of the pain was severe.

Another thing about animal testing is that for some things, there really is no point. Animals-obviously-are not exactly like humans.

http://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgGateway?org=rat http://jailbreakvito.wordpress.com/page/2/ http://www.robert-redford.com/

An animal's body might react differently to a medicine, vaccine, product, etc. than a humans does.

~Hannah, Maya, Reanna

Our Background

For this post, we wanted to explain a little bit about our background. Using pictures from Google Images, we made a collage of abused animals. There is an abused cat, an abused dog, an abused horse, and a monkey being tested on in a lab.

~Hannah, Maya, Reanna

About Us

For our first post, we wanted to talk about us a little bit. Our names are Reanna P., Maya B., and Hannah S.
We all love animals, and Maya and Hannah own pets. Reanna's parents are allergic to them.

Kiwi

Maya owns a dog named Kiwi, and two Guinea Pigs named Jubb Jubb and Spook.

Jubb Jubb and Spook

Hannah owns a cat named Danni that came from Last Hope. They aren't sure if she was abused, but she might have been.

Danni

~Hannah, Maya, Reanna