Animal Awareness | Types of Animal Abuse

Types of Animal Abuse

"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men."

-Alice Walker

What Constitutes Abuse ?

If a living sentient being (human or non-human animal) is forced into slavery, food production, entertainment, medical research, product testing, fighting, racing, or if that being is used for indulgent items such as fur, or being killed in the name of predator control or wildlife control, chances are that living sentient being is abused.

What About Our Children? Are You Saying We Cannot Discipline Them?

As long as there is no physical assault or serious emotional degradation, teaching a child between right and wrong is healthy and is in their best interest so that they learn what is acceptable behavior in society. Also, some domesticated animals can be lovingly trained through positive reinforcement to also learn what is acceptable behavior. Other than that, forcing one's will on another living being is considered to be abusive.

What is Wrong With Food Production? We Have to Eat, Right?

Of course we have to eat but there are a few common misconceptions. First of all, our bodies do not need meat or dairy to be healthy. It is true that we need protein, calcium, B12, and other nutrients but they can all be found in plant sources. And, those plant sources are healthier versions of the nutrient.

Secondly, it is true that animals kill each other in the wild for survival and that is a natural part of life. But we're not in the wild. We have many other sources of food and do not need animal products. Plus, when a lion kills an antelope in the wild, he only kills what he can eat. He's not killing billions of antelope so that his family can gorge themselves to obese overconsumption. Also, that antelope lived a peaceful life of its choosing for years until the day of his death. In our society, we've taken the simple concept that an animal can be a source of food and turned it into the horror that is factory farming. Animals endure extreme amounts of suffering on a daily basis for all the years of their life on a factory farm.

Visit our factory farming page for a much more in depth discussion of these issues.

If We Can't Kill Any Living Being, What Do We Do About Pest and Wildlife Control?

Please remember that the negative term "pest" is only from one's perspective. A rodent or squirrel certainly would not consider themselves a pest. Our world would be a much nicer place to live if we all could try to live in harmony with wildlife. That doesn't mean that we have to put up with anything that an animal wants to do. There are vast amounts of humane ways to encourage animals to not come near our homes if that is what we choose to do. For example, there are about 100 or more plants that repel deer. That is a much better way to keep deer away from your home than lethal methods.

Current methods of predator control, especially in the midwest, are not successful. All it does is leave in place animals who are resistent to the hunting methods, whether they have skills that allow them to escape quickly or coloring that allow them to hide. These animals who are well-adapted to escaping predator control have offspring that are oftentimes just as well-adapted. So the result is increased population numbers of the unwanted predators. And again and again hunters are called back in as the "solution". Meanwhile, if humane methods of keeping predators away from humans and livestock had been implemented, there would be no need to continually have to deal with the problem.

Visit our habitat loss section for a detailed discussion about the many reasons why a diverse amount of biology (biodiversity) is vital to human survival.