Before you can fight animal cruelty, you must learn what animal cruelty is.
One legal description can be found on the web in the legal sections of the TheFreeDictionary.com under the topic cruelty to animals.
cruelty to animals n. the crime of inflicting physical pain, suffering or death on an animal, usually a tame one, beyond necessity for normal discipline. It can include neglect that is so monstrous (withholding food and water) that the animal has suffered, died or been put in imminent danger of death.
This description does account for the fact that some times a pet owner may have to administer some form of “punishment” in order to discipline their dog. The keywords here are “BEYOND NECESSITY”.
This means in excess of what is needed for the purpose normal discipline. Many people would argue the defininition of normal, so here it is as well, as show by Dictionary.com
normal –adj
| 1. | conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural. |
| 2. | serving to establish a standard. |
Normal discipline for a dog will generally mean nothing more then a scolding, and nothing that would cause undo stress to the dog.
This means that such activities as punching a dog, throwing the dogs across a room, withholding food and water for an extended period, keeping your dogs chained to a fence for three days and many other behaviors are considered to be unusually cruel, and as such represent animal abuse.
The site, Pet-Abuse.com, goes into great details regarding the two common designations of animal cruelty, that of Passive Animal Cruelty and Active Animal Cruelty.
Basically, Passive Animal Cruelty happens when a person simply does nothing to prevent inhumane treatment or conditions to a pet. If a pet is hurt, it should be brought to a vet. Leaving the pet outside tied to a tree while it suffers in pain would be an example of passive animal cruelty.
Active Animal Cruelty is a more extreme issue in that it implies that a person “caused intentional harm” to an animal. This would be the case in dog fighting and people who kill animals. These cases can often be extremely cruel and severely disturbing.
These generally accepted guideline of animal cruelty is this, IF YOUR NOT SURE, DON’T DO IT.
Animal cruelty is also often considered to be a precursor to more violent crimes, so beware. Animal abuse is a crime itself and needs to be prevented. The best way to prevent animal abuse is through education. Learn what you can do to prevent yourself or others from being animal abusers.
Next Series Post Preview: How to detect signs of animal abuse.
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