This is a true story about an abused dog named Buddy. At a gas station a 16 week old black lab puppy was put in a diaper box and left to perish. When a man stopped at the gas station to fill his tire with air he heard a puppy cry from the box. Opening the box he found the puppy with PVC glue in his ears, eyes, throat, and nose. Puppies only want to be loved but this puppy was very wounded and the chances are that the puppy wondered what on earth it did wrong. Animal abuse is wrong because animals have feelings just like us even if we don't treat them like they do. People shouldn't harm animals because animals have feelings and shouldn't be harmed because you made a bad choice.

Have you ever thought about how animal abuse begins? One reason animal abuse starts is
because of people who need control of something whether they really think of it as needing control or
not. They decide they will get a pet. They own the pet and treat it cruelly all because of control. People
purposely harm animals because of the power they feel from harming the animal. A lot of abuse involves young children not being able to stand up to their peers. They might be angry at somebody and they take it out on their pet. They might even think it's fun and amusing to watch the animal scamper away because it's frightened. A lot of the time with children, they are not thinking about the animal's feelings.

Did you know that statistics say 75% of violent criminals had early records of animal abuse? Numerous people who start treating animals cruelly end up treating people cruelly also. Serial killers, child abusers, etc. often have a history of animal abuse. Many studies found that there was a connection between animal abuse and human abuse.

Have you at any point been to a circus and seen the shocking tricks and the animals? Did you think the animals behave that way naturally? It requires a great deal of abuse involving tight collars, whips, torture, and beatings to make them act as they do. Also, elephants are kept on chains from the time they are babies for as long as 23 hours a day. Circus elephants are perishing quicker than they are reproducing because of the terrible abuse. Topsoil, of huge amounts, is used to camouflage the injuries and the blood of the elephants. PETA says that the behavior of the animals is not even close to normal. Which means that tigers don't hop around and then lay down at the same time, elephants don't walk trunk to tail, and female elephants don't mount each other. To get an animal to do that, they need a lot of training which means a lot of torture for the animal. You shouldn't go to a circus where they torture the animals like that. We should go only to circuses that don't involve animals unless they find a different way to teach the animals without harming them.

One major type of animal abuse is torture. Signs of animal abuse can be dog fighting, injuries that were not treated properly, owners lack of concern, and other abusive acts. Another form of abuse is accidental cruelty meaning the animal doesn't get the care and necessities they need like food, water or shelter. If you get an animal make sure to give it the care and love it needs. If you can't take care of a pet either don't get one or give it to someone who can care for it.

In Maine the fine of accidental cruelty (meaning that the animal was forgotten) is $500 to $2,500 and an imprisonment up to 1 year. For aggravated cruelty (meaning that they purposely abused the animal) the fine is $1,000 to $10,000 and imprisonment up to 5 years. I think it's a fair charge because if they purposely harm an animal it's safer to have them in jail before they abuse a person too.

More than 15 million animals are used in research each year. Did you know that scientists estimate that the numbers of animals going extinct every day is approximately 100 species? That means that approximately one species goes extinct every 15 minutes. To have less animals going extinct we should work hard to make people not harm endangered species.

This is way we should stop animal abuse before it gets worse. We need to report any abuse we find and try to stop it because if an animal gets abused a person could be abused or killed also. So please don't let abuse continue. Act now and save animals the pain and torture.