Animal Cruelty Article

Animal lovers suggest harsher penalties for animal cruelty offenders


Several local pet owners/animal lovers agreed recently that harsher penalties for animal cruelty offenders would be a good idea to seriously consider. Ramco resident Margaret Russell suggested that the offenders should do some community work.

(Ramco is about 15 mins from Waikerie. If you want to know where Waikerie is, please Google it :D)

"I'd put them to work in animal shelters, make them clean them out, make them look at pets and animals and I tell you what, they'd stop and think about what they've done. What punishment do they get? Growled at or a smack on the fingers or just spoken to? They're not punished. By not punishing them are they learning anything? Why not let them do something, let them think about what they've done."

One pet owner said she wasn't aware of the current animal cruelty punishments. However she had heard of fines and jail terms being possible punishments but suggested that most get waived or reduced to an extent.

She added, "I believe that animals should be treated to the same protection from cruelty as humans, and people that perform acts of cruelty on animals should receive the same punishment for it, as if they had abused a person."


An article posted on the ABC's website on Saturday August 14, 2010 stated that Tasmania's RSPCA organisation has renewed calls for magistrates to impose harsher penalties for animal cruelty, reporting a 37 percent increase in complaints over the past year.

The Acting CEO Michael Linke says most of the complaints involved the treatment of domestic animals.

"One of the worst was a cat with broken hips being left in a person's backyard for five days," he said.

Mr. Linke is calling for tougher penalties.


"More jail terms, higher levels of financial penalties."


Mr. Linke says about ten percent of the complaints related to deliberate animal abuse.


Recent acts of animal cruelty


When the pet owners were asked whether they had seen or heard about any recent acts of animal cruelty, 4 out of the 6 interviewees had heard of several cases each.



Margaret Russell said she saw the case with "Snowy" the cat on the RSPCA Rescue Show on TV. (On July 3, 2010 Snowy had his legs tied up, and his ears were mutilated. He was then set alight and left to die.) This is the link to the NSW RSPCA website featuring Snowy's story: http://www.rspcansw.org.au/snowy.





This is Snowy before July 3.
















This is Snowy after July 3 at RSPCA shelter.









However Mrs. Russell had a story closer to home to tell.


"I know people at Sunlands, they moved out of their house and someone asked, "What about your cats?" And they said, "They're alright." She asked, "Well have you been fed today?" They replied, "Yeah why what's that got to do with it?" She said, "Well these cats are hungry." They said, "They'll be 'right." Well you don't just leave your animals, that's cruel. You should be responsible for what you've got. It's sad when you see cats starving hungry, that's why they catch the birds, small frogs and other animals."


"It really irks me; it really makes me so mad to see anybody being so cruel to a helpless, defenceless animal. It's shocking."


Another pet owner had heard of a "Cat in the garbage bin saga", where a woman threw a cat into a bin and it was left there for hours. She had also heard of many animal cruelty cases occurring in foreign countries, such as dancing bears and was also aware of hoarders; "... people taking large amounts of animals into their homes in appalling conditions with little food, water and protection."

Lyn Crowhurst had heard of the following animal cruelty acts: starvation of horses, maiming of cats, neglect of dogs and again the bears in India/Overseas were mentioned. (In Pakistan people are still bear baiting, despite it being illegal in most areas of the country. There are also dancing bears in India still. There are ongoing efforts to eradicate both of these practises permanently.)


Jeanie Walker, animal activist and last remaining Democrat candidate in Australia had this to say in February this year," It has been extensively researched and proven that cruelty to animals is a precursor to violence and cruelty against humans. If perpetrators of animal cruelty keep escaping punishment then we are promoting a more violent society and this is totally unacceptable to the Democrats and the Australian public."

When asked if the general public should be made more aware about animal cruelty, some interviewees commented that the public is already aware of it through TV and the media. However, 2 interviewees both thought that the consequences of animal cruelty should be made more conspicuous in an attempt to dissuade people from committing such horrible acts.


In Australia penalties for animal cruelty offences vary in each jurisdiction. Each state and territory has their own jail terms and fines as follows:


State Maximum jail term Maximum fine


ACT, 12 months (2 yrs for aggravated cruelty), $10,000 ($20,000 for

aggravated cruelty)


NSW, 6 months (5 yrs for aggravated cruelty), $5,500($22,000 for


aggravated cruelty)


NT, 12 months, $13,000 (regardless of

deliberate or negligent)


QLD, 2 yrs, $100,000 (regardless of

deliberate or negligent)


SA, 2 yrs (4 yrs for aggravated cruelty), $20,000 ($50,000 for

aggravated cruelty)



TAS, 12 months (18 months for aggravated cruelty), $12,000 ($24,000 for

aggravated cruelty)



VIC, 12 months (2 yrs for aggravated cruelty), $12,000 ($24,000 for

aggravated cruelty)



WA, 5 yrs, $50,000 (regardless of

deliberate or negligent)



These penalties came from the following article on the Australian RSPCA website which was last updated on Jan 14, 2010: http://kb.rspca.org.au/What-are-the-penalties-for-animal-cruelty-offences_271.html


Animal cruelty needs to be seen as a more prominent issue. More often than not animal cruelty articles are made the sub story in the news and are ignored or considered unworthy of our time. I hope this article has made some sort of an impact into some people's minds about how horrible it can be and has informed more people that there are serious consequences for anyone who commits cruel acts towards animals.



References


http://www.rspcansw.org.au/snowy

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/14/2982885.htm

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/animal-cruelty-and-the-case-for-harsher-punishment/

http://sj.farmonline.com.au/news/state/agribusiness-and-general/general/last-democrat-targets-rspca-in-animal-rights-fight/1738717.aspx

http://www.dogslife.com.au/dogs_life_articles?cid=12561&pid=6698179

http://www.wspa.typepad.com/compassionateplanet/

http://www.grantanimalwishes.com/some-of-my-projects.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear-baiting

http://kb.rspca.org.au/What-are-the-penalties-for-animal-cruelty-offences_271.html

Assignment 2

The other students in the Write Articles for Publications 2 course (Professional Writing) and I found out oh a few months ago now that we didn't have to add our assignments to our blogs!

However, we did have to make a blog and as far as I know we are being assessed on how well we manage our blogs. So I don't really have to do this, but as I assumed earlier that we did have to add our assignments on here, I guess I'm just going to keep going until the end of the course. (Only 8 assignments in total for Write for Publications 2) Yes I also know that it has taken me a while to blog these too.
So here goes...

Assignment 2

Part 1

Choose a subject for an article, and then a person or people to interview to make the proposed article viable.

I chose animal cruelty as my article subject and I wanted to interview some vets or a vet and some animal owners/animal lovers.

Arrange the interview(s). You may need to do more than one interview (to represent more than one point of view, or to augment the main interview)

Conduct the interview(s). Keep interviews short. Try not to let any single interview exceed 20 minutes.

Part 2

Complete and submit each of the following:

a) State the theme of your article. State the names and titles of the people you plan to interview. Write down the aim of the questions and the kind of response you want.

The theme of my article: (To discover) A rise or decline in animal cruelty and how to prevent it.

People I wanted to interview: Waikerie and or Berri Vets/vet nurses, and approximately 4 local pet owners.

Aim of my questions:

*To research whether animal cruelty is increasing
*To find methods of preventing animal cruelty
*To discover why animal cruelty occurs
*To learn the consequences of committing an act of animal cruelty
*To know what the general public and vet's opinions are about animal cruelty acts
*To see if there is a need to better inform the public about animal cruelty and its consequences

Response I would like:
I would like my interviewees to say, "Yes animal cruelty is increasing" so I can inform the readers of something new. If my interviewees say "No animal cruelty isn't increasing" and "No we don't need to make the public more aware about animal cruelty" then I don't have much to write about. However, it would be nice if it isn't increasing for the sake of the animals' welfare. I would also like to gauge from the interviewees a response about whether more media coverage or word of mouth is needed to spread the word about animal cruelty so that more people can react and take a stand against it.


b) Give a chronological summary of the interviews. Keep it short. Demonstrate to what extent- or not- your interview plans bore fruit.

I think I should have researched more about the more specific cases of animal cruelty instead of interviewing people in general about animal cruelty. I probably should have researched more before starting my interviews. Maybe I would have found more of a wide range of ideas and opinions about specific cases or maybe it is better that I just did general questions. I'm not sure how well my interviews or interview plans bore fruit. It's hard to judge just what people are going to say in an interview.

I managed to interview 6 pet owners including 3 of the people in Part 2 a). I rang and eventually emailed some questions to a vet in Berri but I have not had a response from them yet. (Berri is about 3 quarters of an hr away from Waikerie.)

There were a lot of different opinions about why people commit animal cruelty acts. Some thought it was due to a lack of responsibility and or they don't know how to look after or don't understand their animals. Interviewee Chris Steicke thought it was because some people may consider animals to be dumb and that they don't have feelings.

Others thought it was also due to power hungry people who like to feel they have control over their animals, seeing them as easy targets and take out their rage and frustrations out on them, especially if they don't know how to relate to animals.

Pet owner Margaret Russell said it was because, "They have too much time on their hands and they are just destructive."

Another person said some people use animals as a way to make money; by hoarding lots of animals to reproduce and then selling them.

I didn't really expect the pet owners/animal lovers to know everything about animal cruelty, especially regarding the rules and regulations if a person commits an act of animal cruelty. Most pet owners didn't know what the exact penalties are for committing animal cruelty. However, I did think there would be various opinions about whether animal cruelty is increasing or not so I thought it would be interesting to see how many people agreed or disagreed. Half of my interviewees thought animal cruelty is increasing and the other half disagreed or weren't sure.

Most interviewees agreed that there should be harsher penalties for people who commit animal cruelty acts and one suggested that the culprits do community service at a vet clinic; to teach them a lesson and so they can learn how animals act and how their harsh treatment affects the animals mentally and physically.

Some interviewees thought that there is enough media coverage about animal cruelty. However, some thought that there should be more coverage in newspapers and on TV, or just better campaigning for animal cruelty to show people how horrifying it is. Some also thought that the consequences (not just the acts) of animal cruelty should be emphasised more on TV.


Part 3

Write a summary, in 10 single sentence paragraphs of the proposed article. Remember, the article does not have to follow your original plan, but must pick up on the most important themes that came out of the interview(s).

This was before I wrote my article so I have a bit more information now. These paragraphs are a bit too general but these were what I had.


The reasons people commit animal cruelty varies.

Not sure if animal cruelty is on the rise.

How we can educate people about animals, reasons to get animals and and their behaviours.

The general public should be made more aware about animal cruelty via TV shows and other media.

The consequences of animal cruelty.

The consequences of animal cruelty (for the animals and the offenders) should be emphasized more through the media.

There should be harsher punishments for animal cruelty according to local pet owners.

Possible punishments for offenders could be community work at animal shelters/clinics.

Offenders should be prosecuted in the same manner as an offender who abuses another human being?

Will this decrease the amount of animal cruelty from occurring?