Expert: Laura Holmes - 2/24/2007

Question
Hi I am doing a paper on how laws should prohibit animal abuse and i have some questions.

1.when pets are abused what kind of abuse do the owners do to them?

2.how much damage do owners usually do to their pets when they physically abuse them?

3.what kind of pets usually are abused by owners?

4.how often do the pets get killed as a result of the abuse?

5.What kind of paine do hunted animals go through when they are killed?

6.What type of cruelty do the animals go thru when they are used in sports?

7.how are animals used in labratory testing of drugs?

8.What kind of abuse are animals put through when they do these testings?

9.What kind of animals are put through these chemical tests?

10.Do allot of these animalls that are put through these chemicall tests get killed?

Answer
Ok, a lot of questions and I will try my best to answer them.

1) Any type of animal can be abused and the degree of abuse varies considerably from neglect to actually deliberate harm. In some cases the owners do it out of ignorance of the pets needs because they are not given the right guidance but some people do it to show power and control over the animal, even though it can't defend itself. Pets can be left alone for a long time without food or water, kicked, punched and shouted at. It varies considerably.

2) Same sort of thing for this question. With the more serious cruelty the animals can be dead when they are discovered or in such a bad state that euthanasia is the kindest option. In the lesser cases the cruelty could be a one time loss of control on the owner’s part and a caution from the authorities is enough to prevent a recurrence. Even shouting and scaring the animals is abuse even where no physical harm is caused. The animal's personality and temperament can be greatly affected.

3) Cats and dogs are most abused, especially cats. Rabbits and guinea pigs are the most neglected as they are easy to forget when they are shut up all day, every day in a hutch. Cats are abused they are less likely to fight back than dogs but dogs are also heavily abused as people get the cute puppy but are not prepared for the high costs and effort of having a large dog in the house.

4) I am sorry but I do not know the answer to this. You could try looking at ASPCA/RSPCA leaflets on animal cruelty. That could hold the answer.

5) Hunted animals are forced to endure incredible. Firstly, they are driven to exhaustion by the chase until they can run no more. The animals that are hunted are often timid animals anyway such as deer or foxes and so the chase itself could kill the animals. The dogs that are often used to chase the quarry are bred for stamina and the chase can go on for as long as 30 miles. It is not often possible to kill large mammals such as deer with a single gun shot making the death drawn out and far from humane. There have been reports of injured animals from the hunt stumbling into gardens still alive and using their last bit of strength to move as far as possible from the hunt. In fox hunting the dogs bring their quarry down by biting at it repeatedly on the sides and hind quarters, a method that they would use in the wild but also one which causes the fox to suffer considerable pain.

6) I’m not sure which sports you mean so I will cover greyhound racing and bullfighting in the hope that these answer your question. In greyhound racing the greyhounds are often treated as revenue making tools rather than animals with needs and so these needs are often neglected. As such, when the greyhound stops winning races they are no longer of use to the owner and so are disposed of. Some are sent to shelters, a rare lucky few are kept on as household pets. Sadly, too many greyhounds are killed instead, often dispatched with a bullet to the head or a brick around the neck. Others are found abandoned with their ears cut off to prevent identification from their tattoos. The biggest problems are that too many dogs are bred, the average greyhound racing career is too short and there are not enough shelters in Britain to find homes for the 10,000 greyhounds that retire from racing every year and the 2000 young dogs annually that fail to make the grade as racers. The fate of only 20% of these animals is recorded. The other 80% effectively vanish. As I am sure you’ll agree this amounts to considerable cruelty which, if committed by a member of the public would result in prosecution. I now move on to bullfighting. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that this is cruel. Bullfighting is based on stressing, exhausting, injuring and/or killing bulls, and each of these 'essential' components required to 'win' the fight against the bull is reason enough to stop it. Bulls are sentient beings, and those who breed them have a duty to care for them. This duty is completely neglected when breeders force their bulls into a bullring. In a typical Spanish-style bullfight, the bull enters the arena and after being provoked into several charges is approached by picadors, men on blindfolded horses who drive lances into its back and neck muscles. The bull's ability to lift its head is impaired due to severe loss of blood. Then come the banderilleros on foot, who proceed to stab banderillas-"brightly coloured sticks with harpoon points" into the bull's back to further increase the pain. When the bull has been weakened sufficiently, these banderilleros run the bull in more circles until it is dizzy and stops chasing. Finally, the matador appears and, after forcing a few charges from the exhausted and confused animal, tries to kill the bull with his sword. If he misses, he stabs the submissive animal on the back of the neck until it is paralysed. The dagger is supposed to cut the spinal cord, but even this can be blundered, leaving the bull fully conscious when its ears or tail are cut off as trophies. The bull may then be dragged away from the arena whilst it is still alive, and butchered out of sight for its meat to be distributed to the food market.

7) Animals used in medicinal testing of drugs are there because it is cheaper to test these drugs on animals, compared to other methods such as computer simulations. They can even grow human tissue these days that will respond to the drug in exactly the same way as an actual human would. However, the drugs companies want to reduce costs and use the cheapest alternative available to them, whether it is 100% effective or not. We’ve all seen the errors of using animals to test human drugs. They cannot be accurate because animals have a completely different anatomy to us.

8) The testing that is used on these animals is usually done by the Lethal Dose 50 test. In this test, groups of animals are force-fed increasing amounts of a substance until 50 percent of them die. Another test is the eye and skin irritation tests. This experiment typically involves rabbits. They are often immobilized in full-body restraints while a substance is dripped or smeared into their eyes or onto their shaved skin. Laboratory technicians then record the damage at specific intervals for hours or days. Rabbits may suffer swollen eyelids, irritated and cloudy eyes, and inflamed skin, and in the case of irreversible corrosive damage, they may endure ulcers, bleeding, bloody scabs, or blindness. Other tests include poisoning animals, mainly dogs to see if they develop cancer.

9) Rats, mice, gods, cats, chimps, baboons, rabbits. You name it, it is probably tested on somewhere in the world.

10) Lethal dose 50 – 50% die at the offset – many more die from injuries later on. Millions of animals of all different species get killed in the name of science every year. In the end, ALL of the animals in the labs get killed, whether by the tests or by being disposed of when the test they were involved in has finished. Once an animal enters the lab, it doesn’t leave it alive.

Hope i was helpful to you, thankyou for your interest in animal rights