Entry 13: Double Dog Dreadful
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This summer, I volunteered at the Humane Society. While I was there, I worked with amazing staff and volunteers who are committed to improving the lives of animals throughout the city of Kawartha Lakes. I also had the chance to work with many sweet, playful, and unique dogs; many of which I saw adopted into new homes. Unfortunately, though, as I worked with the dogs, I also learned that most of them had very sad stories concerning why they ended up in the shelter in the first place. Yes, there was at least one happy reunion between one dog and his owners, but many of the dogs aren't as lucky. Looking at the few dogs that I had worked with made me want to learn more about the prevalence of animal abuse and the realities felt by the pets adored by people all over the world.
The results that I found were very depressing. Every year in the US, there are between 9000 and 12000 new cases of animal hoarding each year, including 250, 000 animals. (dosomething.org) These animals live in disgusting conditions, often with their own feces and urine accumulating on every surface, parasites and contagious disease run rampant among the animals, and sometimes with the bodies of other diseased animals decomposing in their living space. Animals that are hoarded do not have their most basic needs (food, water, veterinary services, and sanitary living conditions) taken care of. (peta.org) Outside of animal hoarding cases, there are animals who are neglected by their owners, being deprived of socialization, food, water, and health care. There are animals who are chained outside day-in, day-out, often neglected, left to the mercy of the elements and people passing by. Chained dogs have been reported to be beaten, doused in flammable liquids and set on fire, used to bait fighting dogs, and stolen by strangers passing by. (peta.org) These facts, being but few of the things many animals around the world must face, make me sad and angry, making me want learn more and do more for these animals.
Animal abuse has also been linked to domestic abuse. The following facts have been taken from the ASPCA website:
Source: Domestic Violence and Animal Cruelty. ASPCA. Accessed September 19, 2015.
https://www.aspca.org/fight-cruelty/report-animal-cruelty/domestic-violence-and-animal-cruelty
The APSCA research seems to lead to the conclusion that animal and domestic abusers (those with the intent of physically and psychologically harming the animal and person involved) tend to be violent people who seek control. This control is attained, or at very least sought, through the abuse and degradation of their animals and the people close to them.
Before I break this issue down into a TOK question and statement, please visit http://www.peta.org/issues/companion-animal-issues/cruel-practices/ for more information about animal abuse.
If you would like to get involved with your local animal shelter, please visit http://www.ontariospca.ca/contact-us/community-directory.html for an Ontario Humane Society Directory which will give you the information you need to contact your local shelter and get started.
This issue deals with many AOKs and WOKs. The AOKs include the human sciences and ethics. The WOKs include sense perception, memory, and, clearly, emotion.
This issue is part of the human sciences as many cases of animal abuse, including hoarding, can be indicative of mental illness, many acts of animal cruelty- though not enough in Canada (please visit http://stopanimalabuse.ca/ for more information)- are considered criminal offenses, and as animal abuse is an issue that has been discussed in parliament.
It is an ethical issue as, while animal abuse in all forms is cruel, it can sometimes stem from the best intentions. Hoarding, for example is one of the abuses that is sometimes considered hard to define. An individual might decide to start taking in strays and taking care of them as they view animals in need and believe that they can take care of them. When someone continues to take in animals beyond their means (space, time, financial, human power), the situation can quickly become unsafe for the animals and humans involved.
The issue involves sense perception due to the pain experienced by abused animals, situations where the damage done to an animal is visible (ex. starvation), and the stench of poorly maintained living spaces for animals. When I was volunteering at the humane society, cleaning out the animal kennels was unpleasant enough- even from animals that are well cared for, forcing an animal to live in its own waste for months is unimaginable.
This issue involves memory and emotion as the experiences faced by the dogs can cause them to be fearful and even unadoptable. The emotions the issue evokes in many people, including those that I worked with this summer who worked to make a difference in the animals' lives, make it an undeniably emotional conflict.
To answer those knowledge questions, the following knowledge statements have been formed:
a) Human emotional attachment to animals greatly influences the ethics surrounding their treatment.
b) Mental illness can greatly affect what one would consider the humane treatment of animals.
c) The idea of ownership and desire to control can greatly affect how someone treats animals and other people.
From those knowledge statements, the following knowledge questions can therefore be created concerning this issue:
a) To what extent are ethics shaped by perspective and emotion?
b) How are ethics shaped by the human sciences?
The answer to the first question in regards to this issue is that ethics are absolutely shaped by perspective and emotion. The human emotion connection with animals and our perspective on where we stand in our relationships with them absolutely shapes what we consider the ethical treatment of said animals. Using myself, for example, I love my family's pet dog. We all view him as a part of the family. How we view our dog and the emotions we feel towards him (I am not a crazy-obsessed-with-her-dog-lady) makes us believe that we should treat him with dignity and affection. In this animal abuse situations described above, those involving domestic abuse in particular, those people viewed their power over animals as justification for their abuse of the animals that they considered lesser beings. Feeling of anger, sadness, or frustration may have also led them to believe that their animals were suitable outlets for them emotions, but not in the cuddly way one would hope for. These people, fueled by negative emotions and a negative perspective of the animals wherein they were inferior beings, acted in a way that someone with more positive emotions surrounding and better perspectives of animals would consider completely unethical.
In conclusion, although animal abuse seems to be an easily definable issue, there are many different factors contributing to the nature of animal abuse and the people and dogs affected by it that make it an extremely complex issue that must be considered and dealt with seriously. NO animal should have to undergo a situation where they are physically assaulted, neglected, and deprived of their basic needs. The ethical treatment of animals is absolutely reliant upon perspective and emotion.
Other real-life situations to which this issue can be applied based on the knowledge questions formed include the killing of spiders. Spiders: the multi-eyed and legged arachnids that help to control insect populations, or as others would call them massive, hairy, bite-crazy devil kin. I have a high level of... respect... for spiders: if they stay away from me, we can coexist. Some people, though, harbor only feelings of fear towards spiders. To tie the human sciences into this situation, there are also people who have arachnophobia, the extreme or irrational fear of spiders. These two perspectives and the emotions behind them greatly influence our responses to spiders. I consider it to be very mean to kill a spider, whereas someone with the later perspective would consider it to be unethical to allow a spider to continue living. To answer the first knowledge question in regards to this situation, the fear and hate towards spiders compared to a more positive perspective of spiders completely changes what could be considered the ethical treatment of spiders.
I hope that you enjoyed this blog entry! Until next time.
The results that I found were very depressing. Every year in the US, there are between 9000 and 12000 new cases of animal hoarding each year, including 250, 000 animals. (dosomething.org) These animals live in disgusting conditions, often with their own feces and urine accumulating on every surface, parasites and contagious disease run rampant among the animals, and sometimes with the bodies of other diseased animals decomposing in their living space. Animals that are hoarded do not have their most basic needs (food, water, veterinary services, and sanitary living conditions) taken care of. (peta.org) Outside of animal hoarding cases, there are animals who are neglected by their owners, being deprived of socialization, food, water, and health care. There are animals who are chained outside day-in, day-out, often neglected, left to the mercy of the elements and people passing by. Chained dogs have been reported to be beaten, doused in flammable liquids and set on fire, used to bait fighting dogs, and stolen by strangers passing by. (peta.org) These facts, being but few of the things many animals around the world must face, make me sad and angry, making me want learn more and do more for these animals.
Animal abuse has also been linked to domestic abuse. The following facts have been taken from the ASPCA website:
- A study from 11 U.S. cities revealed that a history of pet abuse is one of the four most significant indicators of who is at greatest risk of becoming a domestic batterer.
- A Texas study found that batterers who also abuse pets are more dangerous and use more violent and controlling behaviors than those who do not harm animals.
- Twelve separate studies have reported that between 18 and 48 percent of battered women, and their children, delay leaving abusive situations in fear for what might happen to their animals.
- Women who do seek safety at shelters are nearly 11 times more likely to report that their partner has hurt or killed their animals than women who have not experienced domestic abuse.
- In Wisconsin, 68 percent of battered women revealed that abusive partners had also been violent toward pets or livestock; more than three-quarters of these cases occurred in the presence of the women and/or children to intimidate and control them.
- Children who are exposed to domestic violence were three times more likely to be cruel to animals.
- The Chicago Police Department found that approximately 30 percent of individuals arrested for dog fighting and animal abuse had domestic violence charges on their records.
Source: Domestic Violence and Animal Cruelty. ASPCA. Accessed September 19, 2015.
https://www.aspca.org/fight-cruelty/report-animal-cruelty/domestic-violence-and-animal-cruelty
The APSCA research seems to lead to the conclusion that animal and domestic abusers (those with the intent of physically and psychologically harming the animal and person involved) tend to be violent people who seek control. This control is attained, or at very least sought, through the abuse and degradation of their animals and the people close to them.
Before I break this issue down into a TOK question and statement, please visit http://www.peta.org/issues/companion-animal-issues/cruel-practices/ for more information about animal abuse.
If you would like to get involved with your local animal shelter, please visit http://www.ontariospca.ca/contact-us/community-directory.html for an Ontario Humane Society Directory which will give you the information you need to contact your local shelter and get started.
This issue deals with many AOKs and WOKs. The AOKs include the human sciences and ethics. The WOKs include sense perception, memory, and, clearly, emotion.
This issue is part of the human sciences as many cases of animal abuse, including hoarding, can be indicative of mental illness, many acts of animal cruelty- though not enough in Canada (please visit http://stopanimalabuse.ca/ for more information)- are considered criminal offenses, and as animal abuse is an issue that has been discussed in parliament.
It is an ethical issue as, while animal abuse in all forms is cruel, it can sometimes stem from the best intentions. Hoarding, for example is one of the abuses that is sometimes considered hard to define. An individual might decide to start taking in strays and taking care of them as they view animals in need and believe that they can take care of them. When someone continues to take in animals beyond their means (space, time, financial, human power), the situation can quickly become unsafe for the animals and humans involved.
The issue involves sense perception due to the pain experienced by abused animals, situations where the damage done to an animal is visible (ex. starvation), and the stench of poorly maintained living spaces for animals. When I was volunteering at the humane society, cleaning out the animal kennels was unpleasant enough- even from animals that are well cared for, forcing an animal to live in its own waste for months is unimaginable.
This issue involves memory and emotion as the experiences faced by the dogs can cause them to be fearful and even unadoptable. The emotions the issue evokes in many people, including those that I worked with this summer who worked to make a difference in the animals' lives, make it an undeniably emotional conflict.
To answer those knowledge questions, the following knowledge statements have been formed:
a) Human emotional attachment to animals greatly influences the ethics surrounding their treatment.
b) Mental illness can greatly affect what one would consider the humane treatment of animals.
c) The idea of ownership and desire to control can greatly affect how someone treats animals and other people.
From those knowledge statements, the following knowledge questions can therefore be created concerning this issue:
a) To what extent are ethics shaped by perspective and emotion?
b) How are ethics shaped by the human sciences?
The answer to the first question in regards to this issue is that ethics are absolutely shaped by perspective and emotion. The human emotion connection with animals and our perspective on where we stand in our relationships with them absolutely shapes what we consider the ethical treatment of said animals. Using myself, for example, I love my family's pet dog. We all view him as a part of the family. How we view our dog and the emotions we feel towards him (I am not a crazy-obsessed-with-her-dog-lady) makes us believe that we should treat him with dignity and affection. In this animal abuse situations described above, those involving domestic abuse in particular, those people viewed their power over animals as justification for their abuse of the animals that they considered lesser beings. Feeling of anger, sadness, or frustration may have also led them to believe that their animals were suitable outlets for them emotions, but not in the cuddly way one would hope for. These people, fueled by negative emotions and a negative perspective of the animals wherein they were inferior beings, acted in a way that someone with more positive emotions surrounding and better perspectives of animals would consider completely unethical.
In conclusion, although animal abuse seems to be an easily definable issue, there are many different factors contributing to the nature of animal abuse and the people and dogs affected by it that make it an extremely complex issue that must be considered and dealt with seriously. NO animal should have to undergo a situation where they are physically assaulted, neglected, and deprived of their basic needs. The ethical treatment of animals is absolutely reliant upon perspective and emotion.
Other real-life situations to which this issue can be applied based on the knowledge questions formed include the killing of spiders. Spiders: the multi-eyed and legged arachnids that help to control insect populations, or as others would call them massive, hairy, bite-crazy devil kin. I have a high level of... respect... for spiders: if they stay away from me, we can coexist. Some people, though, harbor only feelings of fear towards spiders. To tie the human sciences into this situation, there are also people who have arachnophobia, the extreme or irrational fear of spiders. These two perspectives and the emotions behind them greatly influence our responses to spiders. I consider it to be very mean to kill a spider, whereas someone with the later perspective would consider it to be unethical to allow a spider to continue living. To answer the first knowledge question in regards to this situation, the fear and hate towards spiders compared to a more positive perspective of spiders completely changes what could be considered the ethical treatment of spiders.
I hope that you enjoyed this blog entry! Until next time.