Animal Welfare
Laura Culkeen
“We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” – Immanuel Kant
I would like to start this article with a statistic of how many animals are abused a year. However, I cannot as most abuses towards animals are never reported. This is a sad fact, as it means that animals all over the world are being abused behind closed doors. This may even be going on in our very own towns and villages.
How can we say for sure that our neighbours are feeding their pets correctly, making sure they get the right amount of exercise, that they are free of illness, or that they have warm shelter at night?
How can we be sure that when we see a dog tied up for hours day after day that it is because he is badly behaved? It could very well be that the owner doesn’t care enough to let the dog run around.
People look at dogs that growl if someone tries to pet them as vicious, but no animal is born vicious. Animals adapt to their surroundings to survive. This dog clearly does not know that the person wishes to pet them; they think the person is trying to hurt them. To this animal, the only reason that a person would touch them is to hurt them. This is because that is what usually happens to them.
However, not all dogs that are treated badly become vicious. Some dogs will simply shy away from your touch by bowing their head very low. Sometimes they will whine, as they think that they are about to be struck. Dogs are the most common animals abused, yet they are not the only ones. Billions of animals are abused every year, and about the same number die from abuse.
Some of the most common cases of animal abuse involve pets. Luckily, volunteers set up dog shelters and animal shelters to try to nurse these neglected animals back to health and give them better homes. However, these shelters are underfunded.
This means that there is not enough room for the thousands of injured or sick animals that need the care that the shelters provide. The volunteers are forced to ‘put down’ old animals, sick animals, animals with limbs missing and animals that have been there too long. This is a sad truth that many people do not know.
When a family is considering buying a pet for their children, they look for young animals, such as puppies and kittens. They are less likely to take home an old, battered animal. Often, they do not even consider visiting a shelter to see their selection of animals, even though they would be giving one animal a second chance at happiness.
I hope now that after people read this they will appreciate their pets more. Your pet will never judge you for things you have done in the past, or for things you may do in the future.
You will never experience unconditional love, until you have had a pet.
Laura Kulkeen is a Transition Year student in Ballinrobe Community College.
