Conclusion

This will be my last blog. I've had plenty of fun writing about this subject and I hope people have been inspired by my blog. I am a huge animal lover as you may have noticed. In this blog I'll just talk about some facts. 

In Canada, it is an offence under the Criminal Code to intentionally cause unnecessary pain, suffering or injury to an animal.  It is also an offence to threaten to harm an animal belonging to someone else. Most provinces and Territories also have their own animal protection legislation. The Animal Legal Defense Fund releases an annual report ranking the animal protection laws of every province and territory based on their relative strength and general comprehensiveness. In 2014, the top four jurisdictions were Manitoba, British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia. The worst four were Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, Quebec, and Nunavut.

In reported animal cruelty cases, dogs are the most common victims of animal cruelty. Of 1,880 cruelty cases reported in the media in 2007:
64.5% (1,212) involved dogs
18% (337) involved cats
25% (470) involved other animals
Reported abuse against pit bull-type dogs appears to be on the rise. In 2000–2001, pit bull-type dogs were involved in 13% of reported dog-abuse cases; in 2007, they were involved in 25% of reported dog-abuse cases.

71% of pet-owning women entering women’s shelters reported that their batterer had injured, killed or threatened family pets for revenge or to psychologically control victims. 32% reported their children had hurt or killed animals. Between 25% and 40% of battered women are unable to escape abusive situations because they worry about what will happen to their pets or livestock should they leave.

This fact isn't about cruelty bur it is interesting. More American households have pets than have children. We spend more money on pet food than on baby food. There are more dogs in the U.S. than people in most countries in Europe - and more cats than dogs.

To make a 40-inch fur coat it takes between 30 and 200 chinchilla or 60 mink, 50 sables, 50 muskrats, 45 opossums, 40 raccoons, 35 rabbits, 20 foxes, 20 otters, 18 lynx, 16 coyotes, 15 beavers, or 8 seals.

Shark fin soup is around $200 per serving, and the business kills 100 million sharks per year. Because it is not economically viable for fisherman to keep the whole shark, they just slice the fin off and throw the shark back into the ocean. Unable to swim, the shark sinks slowly to the bottom of the sea to die a slow death.

Like I've said before, animal cruelty is useless. It's mainly psychological and people should get help for it. More people should be reporting animal cruelty when they see it because these poor animals can't do it themselves. They can't ask for help so you have to be their voice. There are so many excuses used for animal cruelty but none are good enough. I hope to see less cruelty in the future. To make this possible we need more people to be the voice of these animals.

SOURCES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruelty_to_animals
http://www.americanhumane.org/interaction/support-the-bond/fact-sheets/animal-abuse-domestic-violence.html
http://facts.randomhistory.com/animal-cruelty-facts.html
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/abuse_neglect/facts/animal_cruelty_facts_statistics.html

Animals Used for clothing

Animals are used as resources to provide materials for our clothing. In the name of fashion, millions of animals are killed for the clothing industry every year. These clothes could come from fur farms or slaughterhouses. A large amount of suffering goes into every fur-trimmed jacket, leather belt, and wool sweater.

Wool:

Wool is an animal product which is widely consumed. Sheep produce only enough wool to protect themselves from the cold. Some people may not know this but wild sheep do not need shearing. However, domestic sheep today have been selectively bred to produce more wool than normal. This selective breeding has caused many illnesses, even deaths from overheating and fly strike. Sheep also experience pain during shearing. Many workers immobilize sheep during shearing in order to get all the wool from their bodies, ignoring any stress or injuries they suffer as a result.

Fur:

Fur production uses many furry animals, whether raised on fur farms or trapped in the wild. These animals are skinned for clothes. About 35 animals are killed and skinned to make a single coat and the fur industry currently kills around 30 million animals a year. Animals on fur farms spend their entire lives confined to cramped, filthy wire cages. Fur farmers use the cheapest and cruelest killing methods available which includes suffocation, electrocution, gas, and poison. The use of fur is now commonly rejected due to public awareness of the misery suffered by animals on fur farms, and their cruel deaths.

Leather:

Every year, leather industries slaughters more than a billion animals and tans their skins and hides.
Many of these animals endure all the horrors of factory farming. This includes extreme crowding and confinement, deprivation, and anesthetized castration, branding, tail-docking, and dehorning (as well as cruel treatment during transport and slaughter). Most leather produced and sold is made from the skins of cattle and calves. But leather is also made from horses, sheep, lambs, goats, and pigs who are slaughtered for meat. Other animals that are hunted and killed specifically for their skins includes zebras, bison, water buffalo, boars, kangaroos, elephants, eels, sharks, dolphins, seals, walruses, frogs, turtles, crocodiles, lizards, and snakes.

Alternatives and Pollution:

These days there are many clothes that aren't made from animals. There are products such as shoes,
jackets, sweaters and scarves made from synthetic materials or natural plant fibers such as cotton, hemp or linen. Also, synthetic materials are being recycled with companies now selling clothes made out of recycled plastic bottles. This is good considering how much pollution fur farms cause. For instance, each mink skinned by fur farmers produces about 44 pounds of feces in their lifetime. That adds up to 1 million pounds of feces produced annually by U.S. mink farms. One dangerous component of this waste is nearly 1,000 tons of phosphorus, which pollutes rivers and streams.

I think using animals for clothes is ridiculous. Back a long time ago it made sense because humans needed to protect themselves against the cold. Now a days that isn't a problem since we have heaters. We just use the animal's skin/fur/wool to "look good." There are alternative clothing that looks just as good as real animal clothing. I also find it sad that leather and wool productions aren't as frowned upon as fur. There are all just as cruel and they should all get equal amount of attention. Hopefully more people start turning to alternatives instead.

SOURCES: *MAY CONTAIN GRAPHIC CONTENT*
http://www.animalequality.net/clothing
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-clothing/fur/
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-clothing/animals-used-clothing-factsheets/leather-animals-abused-killed-skins/

Movies That Allegedly Harmed Animals

I was inspired by Watchmojo's youtube video "Top 10 Movies that Allegedly Harmed Animals" to make this post. I will be talking about some of the movies mentioned in their video and I will leave their video at the end so you can watch. Be warned, it contains disturbing content. Two of the three movies I will talk about have been confirmed while the first is still unknown.

The Adventures of Milo and Otis

The Adventures of Milo and Otis is a Japanese adventure comedy-drama film about two animals, Milo (an orange tabby cat) and Otis (a fawn pug). It has a reworked English version that was released on August 25, 1989. When the film was first released, several Australian animal rights organizations raised allegations of animal cruelty during filming. The Sunday Mail alleged more than 20 kittens were killed during production and added that other animals had been injured. For example, a producer had allegedly broken a cat's paw to make it appear unsteady on its feet. Other scenes that were controversial were the scene of a kitten flying off a cliff and a scene of a pug fighting a bear. The film was reported to have the approval of the American Humane Society, but didn't have their officers present during filming. Many people have tried to research if any of this is true but their research always hits a dead end. I love this movie and I've watched it many times as a kid. It hurts to know that animals may have been hurt for our entertainment. I would be so happy when my mom put it in the VCR and now when I see it again I'll feel sad. I remember these scenes and I must say they look dangerous. Hopefully these allegations aren't true.

Here's at cute scene from the movie:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

This movie is about Bilbo Baggins who lives a simple life with his fellow hobbits in the shire. All is good until the wizard Gandalf  arrives and convinces him to join a group of dwarves on a quest to reclaim the kingdom of Erebor. Sadly, it has been reported that many animals used in the film were harmed. They weren't treated badly on screen but off. There was the death of 27 animals. With the exception of a hobbled horse, all claims of animal injury and death are directly related to how the animals were housed and fed. The following occurred:

• A horse named Shanghai was hobbled (his legs were tied together so that he couldn't move) and left on the ground for three hours because he was too energetic for his rider.
• One horse was killed and another horse was injured after being placed with two highly strung geldings, despite concerns that the geldings would be too aggressive.
• Another horse was killed after falling off an embankment in a severely crowded paddock.
• When the horses were moved to the stables, another horse died after being fed large amounts of food that he wasn't used to. 
• Several goats and sheep died from worm infestations and from falling into the sink holes that covered the farm.
• Numerous chickens were mauled and killed by unsupervised dogs or trampled by other animals when left unprotected.

You would think that this being such a recent movie things would change. It is the most recent movie on their list but there are other recent movies that weren't on their list (*cough cough* .Life of Pi and Zookeeper). Many old movies were very harmful and shaped the laws of animals being treating in movies, so why is it still happening? This adds to the reasons why I won't be watching this movie. Who am I kidding? I won't watch it because I don't want to watch 3 full movies for a book that wasn't one of my favourite. :)

Ben-Hur 

Ben-Hur is the tale of an enslaved Jewish prince and his quest for revenge during Roman times. The chariot race scene in this 1925 movie is considered one of the most dangerous film shoots in history. In a quest for realism at the expense of life, the film recreated a full on chariot race. The scene was responsible for killing around 100 horses and even one stuntman. When an animal had a problem, instead of getting treatment from a vet they'd just shoot it instead. Even if they limped! Worst of all, most of the original footage never made it into the final movie. I find the things some people do for realistic scenes crazy. Sure we have it easier now a days with new technology but, was that movie even worth it? It didn't even have sound! I think it should have been left as a book.

I hope you enjoyed my blog and please don't feel the need to ignore these movies because of these events. Just know that some movies aren't just hard on the human actors but the four legged ones too.

Watchmojo's video *contains disturbing content* :

Bibliography: 
http://www.peta.org/features/hobbit-unexpected-cruelty/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Milo_and_Otis#Controversy_of_animal_cruelty_allegations
http://www.cracked.com/article_19548_the-5-most-horrifyingly-wasteful-film-shoots_p2.html

Animal Hoarding

Animal hoarding is keeping a large number of animals as pets without having the ability to properly care for them, while at the same time denying this inability. Compulsive hoarding can be characterized as a symptom of mental disorder rather than deliberate cruelty towards animals. But it usually ends up with the pets being harmed due to the inability to properly care for them. Hoarders are deeply attached to their pets and find it hard to let the pets go. They usually don't understand that they're hurting them and they usually believe that they're providing the right amount of care for their pets.

Health effect on the animals
There are many health effects that animal hoarding can cause. The failure to provide basic care for their animals results in disease and often death. The most common health issues involved are malnourishment, overcrowding, and neglect. Consequences of hoarding are long lasting and continue to affect the animals even after they have been rescued and provided with better care.

Lack of food and water is common in animal hoarding. The consequence of this is starvation and death. Malnourishment also increases diseases and the animals are often in advanced stages of sickness. Plus, when there's not much food, animals may resort to aggressive behavior in competing for the little amount food.

Overcrowding is also an animal health problem in hoarding situations. The number of animals found in hoarding cases range from dozens to several hundreds, and even to over thousands of animals. Animals are confined to houses and this leads to lack of living space and spreading diseases.

Neglect is another huge effect on these animals. Lack of veterinary care is one the most neglected things. This is because the owner refuses to acknowledge the bad health conditions of their animals and are scared they will be forced to give up custody of them. As a result, diseases are left untreated and become worse. Poor sanitary conditions for the animals also come with neglect. To add to that, animals suffer from a lack of socialization caused by an absence of normal interaction with other animals. 

Health effect on humans
Animal hoarding also causes many health problems for the people involved. Common health problems include poor sanitation, fire hazards and zoonotic diseases.

The first issue is how unsatinary animal hoarding can be. The animal's wastes will be riddled all over the house. In addition to severe odors that people dislike, animal waste creates serious health risks through the spread of parasites and high ammonia levels. A high ammonia level is life threatening to humans. The animal's waste also puts residents at risk of getting food related illnesses and parasites. Insect and rodent infestation can follow and worsen hoarding conditions. 

Hoarders usually collect large numbers of objects in addition to animals, making less space. The clutter takes away movement around the house and gives a higher risk of accidents.  Fire hazards are another problem. The clutter prevents a fire escape plan and serves as fuel to fire. 

Another human health issue is the risk of zoonotic diseases. Zoonotic diseases are human diseases transmitted to any other vertebrate animal. It's common for domesticated animals carry zoonotic diseases and humans involved in animal hoarding situations are at a big risk of catching one. Zoonotic diseases that may come from animal hoarding situations include rabies, salmonellosis, catscratch fever, hookworm, and ringworm. 

In my opinion, it's sad that people face this terrible mental health issue. It's also sad for the animals. I wish these people would get help but sadly they can't see the pain they're causing to themselves, other people and these poor animals. It's unbelievable to think some people own over a thousand animals especially in such poor conditions. Animal hoarding can be compared to puppy farms but I think animal hoarding has more emotions behind it because the owners think they're doing good. Also, animal farms only have these animals for the money. I hope one day the people who are affected by this will seek help.

SOURCES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_hoarding
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/animal-hoarding-1.900744

Owning Exotic Animals

Some animals aren't meant to be owned since they're not meant to interact with humans. Not only can they hurt you but you can hurt them too. People may argue that dogs were once wild and now 1 in 3 homes own a dog. But, experts predict that it took thousands of years before dogs were domesticated and they now they s depend on humans for food, shelter, veterinary care, and affection. Wild animals are not domesticated simply by being captive born or hand-raised.

You're hurting them
My first reason will be that you can harm them. Some people don't have the room and resources to care for an exotic pet. Their nutritional and social needs are demanding to meet and, in many cases, are unknown. For example, species of monkeys can travel many  miles per day, and some people aren't prepared to cover that distance with the pet. It's also difficult to tell if some species are ill and laws against owning exotic pets could keep people from taking them to the vet. Plus, owning exotic pets may cause extinction. If everyone started taking these wild animals from their habitats, it could lead them to die out.  Captive breeding wouldn't be a solution to this because it does not take the wild out of wildlife. An example of owning a wild pet would be Justin Bieber's boa he brought to the 2011 Video Music Awards. It may look cool as a baby but when it grows up these pets show bad behaviors like biting, scratching, and unpredictable aggressive attacks. Not to mention he auctioned it off. The good news is it went to a zoo.

They can hurt you 
My second reason is that they can harm us. Exotic animals carry diseases that can spread to people. Some of these include rabies, ringworm, tuberculosis, and measles.  The herpes B virus commonly found among macaque monkeys can be fatal to humans and tens of thousands of people get Salmonella infections each year from reptiles or amphibians, They can also mess up the ecosystem in neighborhoods, releasing diseases on plant life and acting as predators that can decrease a local animal population. Exotic animals often grow to be larger, stronger, and more dangerous than owners expect. Even small monkeys and small cats such as ocelots can inflict serious injuries, especially on kids.

In my opinion, I don't think owning an exotic pet is a good idea. No one would like to be taken away from their home and put in a new environment. It's dangerous because if they ever do return to the wild they'll have no clue what to do. Plus, it could lead to people getting hurt whether it be from a attack or a disease. I think it's better to own a house pet because it won't take up your life and you can easily  provide for it, They should only be owned if the person is rehabilitating the animal or they have been trained and have the dedication to care or it.


SOURCES:
https://www.dosomething.org/news/exotic-animal-no-nos-why-owning-cool-pet-hurts-them-and-you
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/320939
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/exotic_pets/facts/

Animals in Sports

Humans aren't the only ones who do sports. Animals don't do the same sports as us of course but they require the same amount of work. Animals sports are a form of working animals. Many animals in commercial sports are highly trained. The most common animals are dogs and horses. In this post, i'll be writing about 2 major animal sports: racing and fighting.

Racing

Racing is the the most popular form of animal sport, especially horse and greyhound racing. Some racing events involve humans as riders while others have the animals race alone. Some racing includes harness racing, dogsled racing and chariot racing. Racing events are a common way to gamble, with billions of money spent. This is one of the reasons why some countries have made this sports illegal. Some people who race horses will dangerously drug or abuse their horses. To make things worse, many retired horses are killed. As for the greyhounds, many end up with sickness and injuries like broken legs, heatstroke, and heart attacks. They are extremely sensitive to temperature because of their lack of body fat and thin coats but yet they're still forced to race in extreme weather conditions. I don't believe in animal racing. It is cruel to make an animal do all this training and running just for entertainment. Horses ankles can't take all that running especially with people on them. It is also terrible that some people they drug them, abuse them and don't care about their well being. No animal deserves this.

Fighting

Dog fighting is one of the most common types of animal fighting but there are also others like rooster fighting. Dog fighting is a type of sport where people pit two game dogs against one another in a ring or pit for the entertainment of others. Game dogs are dogs that are selectively bred and conditioned from a young age to develop certain traits and abilities for fighting. Some of the abilities include maintaining the attack during a fight despite ripped flesh, exhaustion, dehydration and broken bones. Dog fights are between two dogs and doesn't end until another dog is declared the winner, a dog jumps of the pit, it can no longer harm the other or one dies. The loser, if not killed, is usually killed by the owner.  It has been illegal in Canada since 1892 but the current law requires the police to catch people during the the act, which is often difficult. I am against animal fighting for it is just terrible to pin to animals against each other. Especially with the goal of death. I don't get how someone could find this entertaining, I would find it disturbing. I wish Canada would change their law because finding people in the act is hard. Hopefully with time the law changes. It could save many animals lives.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals_in_sport
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/cruel-sports/greyhound-racing/
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/animals-used-entertainment-factsheets/horseracing-industry-drugs-deception-death/

Myths vs. Facts on Animals Cruelty

In this blog, I'm going to be saying if common animal cruelty statements are a myth or fact. I will then be saying my opinion on the statement. Some people listen to what others say without even checking if it's true. This could lead to people doing things wrong without even knowing or not knowing the reality of certain things. Hopefully I can clear things up for someone who doesn't know if these statement are a myth or a fact.

Statement 1: Leaving your pet in the car for only a short period of time on a hot day won’t hurt it. 

Myth: On a day of 78 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature inside a parked car can go to between 100 and 120 degrees in just minutes. On a day of 90 degrees, the temperature of the car can reach as high as 160 degrees in less than 10 minutes.

Opinion: I think people shouldn't take their pet with them if they know they'll be stopping for a long time at a place where animals aren't allowed.

Statement 2: There aren't any alternatives to animal tests.

Myth: There are many cheaper and faster alternative methods that have more accurate information. These include artificial human skin and robotic technology that can screen thousands of chemicals at once using cells grown in the lab.

Opinion: I think these methods are much better than using animals. They hurt no one and are more accurate. I don't know why companies wouldn't take advantage of these alternatives. They seem much better.

Statement 3:  A lot of circus animals aren't nurtured their whole lives.

Fact: The animals move from circus to circus. Some circuses don't even provide regular veterinary care. Animals who aren't obedient or who have grown too old to perform may be sold or given to zoos, roadside attractions, research laboratories, or private individuals.

Opinion: The circus might be entertaining but it isn't for the animals. I don't like how they are basically thrown away when they are no longer needed. They could have at least been sent somewhere to help them get back to the wild since they probably don't know how to live in the wild.

Statement 4:  Whale species are facing extinction due to poachers and human consumption. 

Fact: Whales are targeted by poachers for their meat and byproducts. Many species are being hunted to near extinction. There are only 100 West Pacific grey whales remaining and the remaining blue whales of the Atlantic only make up 1% of their original population.

Opinion: I find it sad that so many whales species are near extinction. There should be laws protecting them. One of the endangered species include killer whales. In the future, I will be making a post dedicated to a documentary of them being captured for marine mammal parks.

Sources:
http://animal-abuse-violence.weebly.com/myth-vs-fact.html
https://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-myths-about-animal-testing
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/circuses_entertainment/facts/circus_myths.html
http://www.peta.org/issues/companion-animal-issues/cruel-practices/dog-hot-car/