by Paige Zeller

Created on: December 20, 2009

Although cruelty to animals is somewhat subjective, and varies from country to country and person to person, there are definite standards of care for animals in the Western world. These standards vary depending on the utility of the animal: pets, farm/food animals, working animals and testing animals. But when these standards of care are breached, and they often are, the result is animal cruelty.

Pets

Cruelty to pets, cats and dogs in particular, is what most people think about when they consider cruelty to animals. Beating an animal is the most obvious cruelty, but there are many other less direct forms of cruelty relating to their upkeep that are not quite as easy to identify or understand. Some of these less obvious cruelties are inadequate food and/or water, overfeeding, inadequate shelter, or constant confinement (particularly in the case of small pets, such as rabbits or toy dogs). A pet owner may understand that he should not beat an animal, but these little cruelties often go unnoticed and unpunished. How many dogs have you seen constantly tied up outside? Or rabbits who are never let out of their cages?

Farm/Food Animals

Farm and food animals are often the worst victims of animal cruelty and the least likely to be defended against it. Because they are kept by humans for a limited number of purposes, and are often little more than dollar signs to those who own them, many food animals are kept in absolutely appalling conditions: cramped cages or pens containing multiple animals, improper food (e.g. - cattle are supposed to eat grass, not corn), unnecessary injections or hormones and/or antibiotics. While an abattoir is hardly a day spa, the way animals are treated on the way to their deaths can be absolutely horrific, such as the sick, downed cows that were beaten so they would rise and walk to their own death. Even farm animals who are not destined for the dinner table suffer multiple cruelties specific to corporate agriculture. Consider the case of the laying hen who, in addition to the usual cramped, dirty conditions that nearly all corporate farm animals are subject to, will often have their beaks cut off so they do not peck the other hens in their cages; or, alternatively, the case of the breeding sow, who is sometimes kept in a gestation crate, prone and unable to move for months at a time. Although farm and food animals are subject to lifetimes of cruelty, many people outside of the agricultural industry are unaware of these conditions.

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