Domestic+Animal+Abuse+8-503

Rachel, Claire, Ya, Jennifer, Toshar and Maiwand 8-503
====[[#x---Domestic Animal Abuse Essay 1 There are many different problems in today’s society. However, our group decided to focus on the problem of domestic animal violence and cruelty. Domestic animal violence is when people inflict damage or suffering on animals for reasons other than self-defense. This problem is very serious because many puppies and kittens, as well as other animals, are murdered and tortured every day. Animal cruelty is a big problem but there aren't many laws to prevent it. Four years ago, NFL star Michael Vick was arrested for an illegal interstate dog fighting operation in Virginia. This event gained nation-wide recognition, and domestic animal violence awareness increased too. Although apologetic, Vick was still sentenced to 23 months in jail and Judge Hudson, who was the judge at the case, still thought Vick had not taken full responsibility. On another case that occurred over 2 years ago, a pit bull terrier named Phoenix was set on fire with gasoline. She survived the fire, but 95% of her body had skin damage and a few days later, she succumbed to kidney failure. Since the incident, the problem gained awareness in our community. But even after 2 years, it is still a problem. According to research in 2007, out of the 1,880 cases of animal abuse reported, 1,212 dogs suffered cruelty, 337 cats suffered and over 470 other species of animals also faced abuse. Animals don't deserve to be hurt, especially when they cannot defend themselves. Our government is not doing enough to stop domestic animal violence. Animal abuse is an important issue. This is important not only because of the animals being hurt and abused, but also because it is found that people who are animal abusers commit worse crimes later on. One study by the American Humane Association, it showed that 70% of animal abusers also had records for other crimes such as domestic violence to the other residents of the environment and sexual abuse and/or silence of the children present. Animals are still being treated like trash, but what has our government done to stop it? In the majority of the states it is a felony to abuse animals. The federal government should get involved more, as well as state governments. After visiting the ASPCA website, it seems that they are the most involved out of all organizations, and new reports of animal felonies are being updated weekly. Their trucks are the most seen around many neighborhoods and they give information about different types of animal abuse such as puppy mills and animal hoarding on their websites. They also supply a variety of information about abuse and animal care, which is very resourceful to owners, and also show commercials on TV that promote the end of animal abuse. There are also people who don’t support anti-animal abuse. For example, the Supreme Court forcefully ended a federal law that was directed at ending dog fighting and “other violence against animals.” The members said that it “violated constitutional guarantees of free speech and created a "criminal prohibition of alarming breadth." Our state government is the level of government that needs to deal with these kinds of issues. However, though there are few laws protecting animals from animal cruelty, there are still some significant ones. In the US, the American Welfare Act of 1966 is the main law that oversees the cruelty to animals. It is part of six amendments, one each in 1970, 1976, 1985, 1990, 2002 and finally 2007. Other than this act, all fifty states in the US each have their own laws dealing with the issue of animal cruelty and violence. Forty-six of these fifty states have felony penalties. The states that have the best anti-animal cruelty laws are California, Illinois, Maine, Michigan and Oregon, according to the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Animal violence needs to stop and if the government can't put a stop to it, the public should. Many people concern themselves with this special issue but many are not very effective.]] Domestic Animal Abuse Essay 1 There are many different problems in today’s society. However, our group decided to focus on the problem of domestic animal violence and cruelty. Domestic animal violence is when people inflict damage or suffering on animals for reasons other than self-defense. This problem is very serious because many puppies and kittens, as well as other animals, are murdered and tortured every day. Animal cruelty is a big problem but there aren't many laws to prevent it. Four years ago, NFL star Michael Vick was arrested for an illegal interstate dog fighting operation in Virginia. This event gained nation-wide recognition, and domestic animal violence awareness increased too. Although apologetic, Vick was still sentenced to 23 months in jail and Judge Hudson, who was the judge at the case, still thought Vick had not taken full responsibility. On another case that occurred over 2 years ago, a pit bull terrier named Phoenix was set on fire with gasoline. She survived the fire, but 95% of her body had skin damage and a few days later, she succumbed to kidney failure. Since the incident, the problem gained awareness in our community. But even after 2 years, it is still a problem. According to research in 2007, out of the 1,880 cases of animal abuse reported, 1,212 dogs suffered cruelty, 337 cats suffered and over 470 other species of animals also faced abuse. Animals don't deserve to be hurt, especially when they cannot defend themselves. Our government is not doing enough to stop domestic animal violence. Animal abuse is an important issue. This is important not only because of the animals being hurt and abused, but also because it is found that people who are animal abusers commit worse crimes later on. One study by the American Humane Association, it showed that 70% of animal abusers also had records for other crimes such as domestic violence to the other residents of the environment and sexual abuse and/or silence of the children present. Animals are still being treated like trash, but what has our government done to stop it? In the majority of the states it is a felony to abuse animals. The federal government should get involved more, as well as state governments. After visiting the ASPCA website, it seems that they are the most involved out of all organizations, and new reports of animal felonies are being updated weekly. Their trucks are the most seen around many neighborhoods and they give information about different types of animal abuse such as puppy mills and animal hoarding on their websites. They also supply a variety of information about abuse and animal care, which is very resourceful to owners, and also show commercials on TV that promote the end of animal abuse. There are also people who don’t support anti-animal abuse. For example, the Supreme Court forcefully ended a federal law that was directed at ending dog fighting and “other violence against animals.” The members said that it “violated constitutional guarantees of free speech and created a "criminal prohibition of alarming breadth." Our state government is the level of government that needs to deal with these kinds of issues. However, though there are few laws protecting animals from animal cruelty, there are still some significant ones. In the US, the American Welfare Act of 1966 is the main law that oversees the cruelty to animals. It is part of six amendments, one each in 1970, 1976, 1985, 1990, 2002 and finally 2007. Other than this act, all fifty states in the US each have their own laws dealing with the issue of animal cruelty and violence. Forty-six of these fifty states have felony penalties. The states that have the best anti-animal cruelty laws are California, Illinois, Maine, Michigan and Oregon, according to the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Animal violence needs to stop and if the government can't put a stop to it, the public should. Many people concern themselves with this special issue but many are not very effective. ====

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==== Barnes, Robert. "Supreme Court Overturns Anti-animal Cruelty Law in First Amendment Case." //Washington Post - Politics, National, World & D.C. Area News and Headlines - Washingtonpost.com//. 21 Apr. 2010. Web. 11 Mar. 2011. [] Baxamusa, Batul Nafisa. "Animal Abuse Statistics." //Buzzle Web// //Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web//. Web. 04 Mar. 2011. [] D'Silva, Roy. "Animal Cruelty: Animal Abuse Facts and Statistics." //Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web//. Web. 04 Mar. 2011. __ . __ ====

====  Claire, Toshar, Ya, Jennifer, Maiwand, and Rachel. 8-503 Domestic Animal Abuse Essay 2 Domestic animal abuse is a major problem all over the world. Many people, groups and organizations work to stop all kinds of abuse to all animals. However, many animals are still not safe and face torture and cruelty. Many states and countries have policies and public laws to protect them but they are still not 100% effective.  One policy is the Animal Welfare Act in England and Wales that came into action in 2007.This was the first law of pet prevention in 94 years. With this act, the Protection of Animals Act was replaced and also combined at least 20 legislation pieces into one. This act included fines up to £20,000, a 51 weeks maximum jail sentence and for some, a lifetime ban on the ownership of animals. This Act also placed a ‘duty of care’ to the owners, which stated that they needed to provide their pets with the basic needs, veterinary treatment and lastly the correct environment to live in. Before, the acts only extended to farm animals but now, it applied to all animals in human care. The Animal Welfare Act protects animals from harm and introduced an animal welfare offence for the first time. The act provides them with the basic care and necessities but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are protected form harm. This act protects them form certain forms of mutilation such as docking (the removal or shortening of an animal’s tail for cosmetic reasons) and raised the minimum age range for purchasing a pet from 12 to 16 years of age).  Although the Animal Welfare Act protects animals from some forms of animal cruelty, it does not protect them from all. Some practices such as castrating, spaying cats and dogs and ear tagging were not made illegal. Also, the ban on docking did not include all animals. It was banned in the case of cosmetic purposes but for police dogs or dogs in service, they are still faced with this painful act. In the United States, most states consider animal cruelty a felony and treat it as such. More than 75% of the fifty states consider this a felony and have fines depending on the crime. Although the abusers are fined and sometimes even jailed, the policies state nothing about what happens to the animals that have been brutalized. Owners are fined $1,000 and jailed up to one year in New York for cruelty to animals and a sentence of $5,000 and five years in jail for aggravated cruelty.  “NEW YORK STATUTES AGRICULTURE AND MARKETS LAW CHAPTER 69 OF THE CONSOLIDATED LAWS ARTICLE 26—ANIMALS” states all the policies regarding animals and animal abuse. Number 353 of this chapter states that any person in NY “ who overdrives, overloads, tortures or cruelly beats or unjustifiably injures, maims, mutilates or kills any animal, whether wild or tame, and whether belonging to himself or to another, or deprives any animal of necessary sustenance, food or drink, or neglects, [etc] or causes, procures or permits any animal to be overdriven, overloaded, tortured, cruelly beaten, [etc] is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or by both.” This policy protects animals from their cruel owners and just about covers most of the things that are considered to be animal abuse. This policy however, does not give the abuser what he or she deserves. The maximum sentence is a $1,000 fine and a sentence of no more than one year. They could do all these things and then go back to abusing animals. This does not prevent them from cruelly beating their pets or owning them again after abuse and they could easily go back to what they were doing before they were arrested. Their pets would continue to be abused and would no longer have any peace in their households. It does not seem fair to give a fairly low sentence when what they had done was so wrong. It is undeniable that policies have their disadvantages and advantages. They can protect animals from some forms of harm but not all of them as the Animal Welfare Act supports. There is a lot of hard work to make policies against animal abuse perfect or at least more effective and the population as a whole, especially the animal abusers, need to put more effort into this important issue in our community. Works Cited:  ==== ==== Ballard, Mid-2007 Jackie. "BBC - Ethics - Animal Ethics: Animal Welfare Act." BBC - Homepage. ==== ==== <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 200%;"> Web. 11 Feb. 2011. __ <http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/animals/overview/latest.shtml>. __ "NEW YORK CRUELTY TO ANIMALS STATUTES." Department of Animal Science (ASCI) : University of Vermont. Web. 18 Feb. 2011. ====

<span style="color: #0079ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 0.5in;">__ <http://asci.uvm.edu/equine/law/cruelty/ny_cruel.htm>. __
==== <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 200%;">Stray Pet Advocacy. Web. 18 Feb. 2011. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 200%;"> []. ====

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Domestic Animal Abuse Essay 3 <span style="color: #0d0d0d; display: block; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 16pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">Domestic animal abuse has many policies around the world that deal with this problem. The US in particular has policies in every state and “New York Statues Agriculture And Markets Law Chapter 69 Of The Consolidated Laws Article 26—ANIMALS” seems to be the best policy of all. The most specific and beneficial to all animals, this policy protects them and provides them with the safety they deserve. Our policy amends the current one to prevent future abuse.Owners are fined $1,000 and jailed up to one year in New York for cruelty to animals and are sentenced to a $5,000 fine plus five years in jail for aggravated cruelty and “New York Statues Agriculture And Markets Law Chapter 69 Of The Consolidated Laws Article 26—ANIMALS” mentions all the policies regarding animals and animal abuse. Number 353 of this article states that any person in NY “who overdrives, overloads, tortures or cruelly beats or unjustifiably injures, maims, mutilates or kills any animal, whether wild or tame, and whether belonging to himself or to another, or deprives any animal of necessary sustenance, food or drink, or neglects, [etc] or causes, procures or permits any animal to be overdriven, overloaded, tortured, cruelly beaten, [etc] is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or by both.” This policy protects animals from their cruel owners and just about covers most of the things that are considered to be animal abuse, which makes this policy the best. It protects animals from just about all types of harm that could befall them and is the most specific.However, this chapter of the law does not give the abuser what he or she deserves. The maximum sentence is a $1,000 fine and a sentence of no more than one year. Abusive animal owners have the chance to go back to their criminal ways and future pets are in danger. It does not prevent them from owning pets after previous abuse and they could easily go back to abusing animals without anyone being notified. Their prior, as well as potential future pets, would continue to be harmed and would no longer be safe. It does not seem fair to give a fairly low sentence when what they had done was so wrong. That’s why our proposed policy states that owners convicted of abuse may not own any species of animal at any point in their lives.This policy would be considered constitutional and does not violate the U.S. Constitution, nor does it violate New York's Constitution. The policy does not go against a person's freedom of belief or freedom of expression. It does not allow the government to take a person's life, liberty or property without seeing that the person has a fair trial in a court of law. The proposed policy also does not allow the government to invade the privacy of a person's home without a very good reason. A warrant is needed in order to do this. Also, it does not limit a person's right to freedom of expression. The suspect is allowed to express him or herself in speech, writing or by any other means. Finally, the policy does not discriminate against anyone based on race, religion, age, ethnic group, or gender. The suspect would be arrested, tried and found guilty/innocent based on the crime they were accused of committing. The state government would be responsible for carrying out this policy. The state government is in charge of all the laws and policies of they and would also be responsible for approving, enforcing and carrying laws out. This proposed policy would also fall under their jurisdiction because it amends an already existing NY policy. It is undeniable that this policy has its disadvantages and advantages. The “New York Statues Agriculture And Markets Law Chapter 69 Of The Consolidated Laws Article 26—ANIMALS” protects animals from many forms of harm but not all of them. However we feel irrefutable that this policy is the best in contrast to the others in the world such as the Animal Welfare Act of 1966. Although this chapter of the law has its flaws, animals are mostly protected from abuse and are for the most part safe. Domestic Animal Abuse Essay 3Domestic animal abuse has many policies around the world that deal with this problem. The US in particular has policies in every state and “New York Statues Agriculture And Markets Law Chapter 69 Of The Consolidated Laws Article 26—ANIMALS” seems to be the best policy of all. The most specific and beneficial to all animals, this policy protects them and provides them with the safety they deserve. <span style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"> In the United States, owners are fined $1,000 and jailed up to one year in New York for cruelty to animals and are sentenced to a $5,000 fine plus five years in jail for aggravated cruelty and “New York Statues Agriculture And Markets Law Chapter 69 Of The Consolidated Laws Article 26—ANIMALS” mentions all the policies regarding animals and animal abuse. Number 353 of this chapter states that any person in NY “ who overdrives, overloads, tortures or cruelly beats or unjustifiably injures, maims, mutilates or kills any animal, whether wild or tame, and whether belonging to himself or to another, or deprives any animal of necessary sustenance, food or drink, or neglects, [etc] or causes, procures or permits any animal to be overdriven, overloaded, tortured, cruelly beaten, [etc] is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or by both.” as seen in Essay 2. This policy protects animals from their cruel owners and just about covers most of the things that are considered to be animal abuse, which makes this policy the best. It protects animals from just about all types of harm that could befall them and is the most specific. However, this chapter of the law does not give the abuser what he or she deserves. The maximum sentence is a $1,000 fine and a sentence of no more than one year. Abusive animal owners have the chance to go back to their criminal ways and future pets are in danger. It does not prevent them from owning pets after previous abuse and they could easily go back to abusing animals without anyone being notified. Their prior, as well as their potential pets, would continue to be harmed and would no longer be safe. It does not seem fair to give a fairly low sentence when what they had done was so wrong. This policy should mention the owners and prevent them from owning any species of animal at any point in their lives. <span style="color: #0d0d0d; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">It is undeniable that this policy has its disadvantages and advantages. The “New York Statues Agriculture And Markets Law Chapter 69 Of The Consolidated Laws Article 26—ANIMALS” protects animals from many forms of harm but not all of them. However it is also irrefutable that this policy is the best in contrast to the others in the world such as the Animal Welfare Act of 1966. Although this chapter of the law has its flaws, animals are mostly protected from abuse and are for the most part safe. <span style="display: block; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 16pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">Works Cited

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Federal Government." //U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.// Web. 25 Mar. 2011. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"><[|__http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs041.htm__]>.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">"NEW YORK CRUELTY TO ANIMALS STATUTES." Department of Animal Science (ASCI): <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-indent: 0.5in;">University of Vermont. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <[|__http://asci.uvm.edu/equine/law/cruelty/ny_cruel.htm__]>. "

Domestic Animal Abuse Essay 4 Draft 2 <span style="display: block; line-height: 19pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;"> Claire, Rachel, Ya, Jennifer, Toshar, Maiwand

The main activities of our plan include a current policy. We have slightly changed this policy, making it more efficient. The policy we have based our plan on is “NEW YORK STATUTES AGRICULTURE AND MARKETS LAW CHAPTER 69 OF THE CONSOLIDATED LAWS ARTICLE 26—ANIMALS.” We hope to gain the support of many anti-animal cruelty groups and our goal is to have as many supporters as possible to obtain approvable. The main activities of our plan is to increase the sentence and to make sure animal abusers convicted are stopped from ever owning pets again. The maximum sentence for the abuser is a $1,000 fine and up to one-year imprisonment. This policy does not prevent the abusers to continue being cruel to animals after they finish their sentence. We have decided that the only way to improve this policy would be to make sure that the abuser could never acquire another animal again after their sentence. This would prevent the abuser from ever bringing cruelty upon animals again. To get our policy to be adopted, we plan on getting a petition started to inform people about our cause and we also hope to gain the support of certain individuals that could help spread word about the issue. There are many individuals and organizations that would be willing to support our policy. Some of these organizations include, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). These are just some of the organizations that would support our policy. As for individuals, anyone who is against animal cruelty would be supportive of our plan. To win their support we would explain to them our policy to ask for opinions. By doing this we can gain their support for the policy. With organizations, such as the ASPCA, supporting us, others against animal cruelty would support our policy as well. Influential individuals and groups who might oppose our proposed policy would be people who do not support anti-domestic animal abuse. People who oppose would be those //in support// of animal abuse. Any one else who opposed this policy might be someone who believes they have a policy that could be more effective than ours. We might be able to win their support by showing them the statistics and get them to meet the pets that have been abused. The actual meeting might be able to sway them into our side and get them to change their opinion about this issue. Influential government officials that might oppose our policy would probably be the senior U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials that attempted the covering up of reports of cruel and illegal slaughterhouse practices. If they tired to cover up slaughterhouse practices, they could also try to cover up the more cruel reports of animal abuse. However some officials that would support our proposal could be Del. Jeff Waldstreicher, D-Montgomery County and Sen. James Robey, D-Howard County. They sponsored “House Bill 227/Senate Bill 115” which allows courts to prevent those convicted of animal cruelty from owning animals. This was issued in Maryland and the officials involved are to be commended. Also, the “House Bill 407/Senate Bill 747 sponsored by Del. Susan McComas, R-Harford County, and Sen. Norman Stone, D-Baltimore County…” This allows the courts to “include protections for pets in domestic violence protective orders,” and also is in Maryland. Research has provided that there is indeed a link between animal abuse and domestic violence. We are confident that we can sway the opinions of influential individuals and government officials. Our goal is to win their approval and support and with enough hard work and support we can hopefully change this issue for the better. Works Cited:

"Maryland General Assembly Adjourns with Major Victories for Animals : The Humane Society of the United States." //The Humane Society of the United States : The Humane Society of the United States//. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. __ <http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2011/04/maryland_general_assembly_adjourns_041211.html>. __

Runkle, Nathan. "USDA Veterinarian Accuses Officials of Covering Up Animal Abuse." //MFA Blog//. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. __<http://www.mfablog.org/2010/03/usda-veterinarian-accuses-officials-of-covering-up-animal-abuse.html>.__

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