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WINNERS: STUDENTS IN GRADES 2-10 SHOW COMPASSION AND LEADERSHIP SKILLS THROUGH THEIR WRITINGS. Submitted By IN DEFENSE OF ANIMALS |
Winner – In Defense of
Animals Poster
First prize -
$200 U.S. Savings Bond Animals are not like toys because they show affection and need as much love as you or anyone in your family and for all the ways these animals help us all they ever ask for is love care and a scratch behind the ear. The three other best choices you can make for them is spaying or neutering them, putting a collar with the animals information on it or a micro chip, and not de-clawing them. Those are all the small things you need to do to get a loving best friend who will always love you and be there for you. Second prize - $100 U.S.
Savings Bond To be a good animal guardian the animal needs love, food, water, shelter, and care from the guardian. Animals can be treated like property or family. If they were treated like property they wouldn’t be cared for, wouldn’t be loved, and wouldn’t feel loved. This is not the way to treat your animal. If treated like family they will feel loved, cared for, and wanted. If I saw someone mistreating an animal I would tell the Pet Police or an animal shelter. To treat animals like friends, I play with them. Third prize – In Defense
of Animals Poster Cruelty to Animals by Jourdon
Schulz A Pet's Life by John Eumont
First prize -
$200 U.S. Savings Bond What is animal abuse? Animal abuse is when someone does harm to an animal. Animal abusers are often manipulative people. They threaten to harm animal to get people to do what they want them to do. Also known to happen, are situations where a women will not leave a bad marriage because she is concerned for her pet. There are emergency animal shelters that can be utilized for situations like this. Sometimes they aren't manipulative. Animal abuse has also been known to happen at the hands of children who have been abused by a parent. The children strike out against something that they can control, which often is a pet of some kind. The child is only doing to the animal what was done to them. Some animal abusers are jealous of their human victims animals. This is because animals give unconditional love and affection. Something that the victim is not giving the abuser. An abuser has been known to kill the animal in order to somehow isolate their human victims. Animal abuse often goes unknown. Animals are like small children, they cannot speak out against this crime. There are documented cases where murderers of humans have had backgrounds of known animal abuse. The famous Boston Strangler killed 13 women and was known to have trapped dogs and cats in orange crates and shot arrows through the boxes. There was a shooting at a San Diego school where a woman named Brenda Spencer fired forty shots at a group of school children. Two children died at that time. Later neighbors reported to police the woman was known to abuse cats and dogs by setting their tails on fire. Abuse against animals as noted here are against the law. Whether it is a felony or a misdemeanor, depends on the state in which the crime was committed. There is currently research being done that would prove that animal abuse is a form of domestic violence and emotional abuse. The website for this research is Petabuse.org. They will gladly accept any information on pet abuse (actual situations). You may remain anonymous if you choose to help this organization by reporting known instances of animal abuse. Some people consider animal research as another form of animal abuse. Animals are used for many different types of research such as medical cures and testing for different types of drug therapy. Each year an estimated 14 million animals will suffer and die painful deaths due to research. Many different types of animals are used for medical research, mice, cats, dogs, rabbits, chickens, frogs, pigs, goats and more. There is research into gene therapy using animals. There was even experimentation with cloning of one certain sheep. A sheep named Dolly. There are certain people that view this as a form of animal abuse. Others view it as a giant step for mankind. I believe that animal and human abuse are related. Abuse is abuse, no matter who is on the receiving end of it. If you ever see or hear of any form of abuse, whether it is animal or human it should be reported to the appropriate authorities. By not reporting abuse, you are not helping anyone. The only way to stop abuse of any kind is to SPEAK UP! Second prize - $100 U.S.
Savings Bond Schools today are responsible for teaching many things to students. I believe that teachers and administrators have very difficult jobs. Not only is it their responsibility to teach the academic material to students so that they learn the necessary subject, they also are responsible for setting good examples so that students will learn from positive and respectful leaders. On way I believe principals and teachers would help teach students to care, respect, and be responsible for their reactions is through the teaching of care and respect toward the animals of our earth. When children are taught to care for animals and taught that animals should be treated in a good manner, then there is a better chance that students would not only care for animals in a proper way, but this would carry on to the way students might perhaps treat each other and their teachers. By impressing to students that being kind to animals demonstrates that teachers and administrators have sympathy and are kind-hearted people, students would become more comfortable with teachers who show they are kind people. I have had the opportunity this year to be involved in a school program called "Roots and Shoots". I have learned many things about the environment, especially the importance of respecting and caring for animals. By learning about how to treat the environment and creatures I believe I have become a more responsible person. Schools that allow students the opportunity to participate in such programs, are helping to create a better world, both inside the building and outside. As a leader or principal of a school I would allow many opportunities for students to participate in environmental activities so that they would all be able to see the importance of how to treat the earth. Students would inevitably become caring, respectful, and responsible people. Third prize – In Defense
of Animals Poster Why should we not abuse animals, the same reason we should not abuse kids. It is wrong and we just shouldn’t do it. Animals are supposed to be our companions and friends not what we just beat up and forget. You should take care of them like they were our children. Animals are like babies. The reason I say this is because they depend on you to feed, water, bath and care for them. When you buy an animal you automatically except that job regardless of who you are. Animals need to be loved. I have two cousins who like to abuse animals till they are dead, just last year they chained a kitten to a tractor and threw rocks at it, that’s one example of animal abuse. We do not own our animals we show guardianship over them the same with a child we don’t say well I own that baby we say we are the guardians of the baby, it should be the same for our pets. I have a pet iguana. He is a foot long and I have a pet turtle when people ask who owns those animals, I say I’m not the owner, but I’m the guardian. My pets are treated the same. One does not get something without the other that’s how I am about my pets. (To) people who want to train your pets and like to abuse them; Be nice, kindly say what you want them to do don’t yell at them and when they do what you want, give them a treat. This is what I think about pets. Thanks for your time.
First prize -
$200 U.S. Savings Bond Youth and Violence: How
Animal Abuse Turns Into Violence Towards Humans Too many fail to recognize animal abuse as a sign of personality disorders, depression, and in nearly all cases, future violence towards humans. People have varied reasons for abusing animals, and Dr. Randall Lockwood has identified some of the major motives. The list includes the need to satisfy a prejudice, such as beating a dog because of a past hatred of dogs. To impress others with aggressiveness is a common form of abuse, such as friends showing off to each other by abusing animals. Shocking others for amusement, anger displacement and nonspecific sadism are also included. Animal abuse can also be a warning sign to many mental and emotional disorders including obsessive-compulsive disorder, addiction, zoophilia, inability to form attachments and a general lack of power or control in ones life. The motives behind animal abuse can easily transfer to human beings. Contrary to what people believe, someone beating a dog can, and probably will signify and lead to further violence against other animals and people. Dr. Lockwood has also identified the major factors in animal abuse that will lead to violence against humans, including repition of the act, premeditation, the act of restraining the victim, the intimacy involved in the attack, absence of economic motives, sexual assault, documentation in forms of pictures, videos or writing, and posing or display of the victims body. These signal a need for power or control of a situation, which motivates nearly all violence against humans and animals. Prisons and Mental Heath facilities across America are filled with violent offenders, over half of which have admitted to committing animal abuse. 78% of prisoners being held for animal abuse had a history of abuse towards people, and nearly half of all sexual offenders had admitted to practicing torture and murder on animals before committing their crimes. Law enforcement surveys have shown that 82% of animal abuse cases involving intentional cruelty or torture were committed by people who had also been convicted of assault, murder, domestic violence and child abuse. Many studies have shown that abuse to animals in the home can easily transfer to abuse against children and spouses. In New Jersey, 88% of homes where children had been abused, another family member had abused an animal. In Great Britain, 83% of families with a history of animal abuse were also tagged for suspected child abuse or neglect. 85% of women in the US who had been abused by their spouse stated that their spouse also abused the family pet, 63% said the abuse was witnessed by a child. It is well known that children who witness abuse of animals or humans in their home develop feelings that abuse in a rational solution to a problem. Children who witness animal abuse are more likely to abuse animals, commit vandalism, arson, and exhibit unnatural brutality. They are known to become more and more aggressive with humans as they grow up, with the basis that violence towards living things is acceptable. Without help, violence towards humans and animals will only continue to be passed through the generations. It's known that people such as Kip Kinkel, Dylan Klebold, Eric Harris, Andrew Golden, Mitchell Johnson, Michael Carneal and Luke Woodham, all teenage mass-murderers who took revenge on their classmates in the form of massacres, sought control over their peers to avenge years of social mockery. Klebold and Harris killed 12, and injured 20 in a shooting, following years of their boasting to friends and family that they mutilated animals. Kip Kinkel killed 4, injured 22 after being caught several times for animal abuse, including blowing up cats, cows, chipmunks and squirrels with homemade firecrackers. Johnson and Golden killed 5 after a history of shooting dogs. Woodham killed 3, and injured seven others shortly after detailing in his journal the glory of torturing, killing and burning his family dog. These teens had felt as if they had no control over their life, and that others were causing their emotional pains. They were all known to be animal abusers by family, friends and law enforcement, but none were required to undergo counseling for their prior offenses. We can never know, but perhaps if others had recognized the signs of violence towards animals as a future violence towards humans, many lives could have been saved. Animal abuse is not a case of "boys will be boys?" Animals abuse is a sure sign of future violence towards humans. Parents, School Officials and Law Enforcement agencies that wish to prevent kids from growing into violent people need to pay more attention to animal abusers, especially the young. Catching violence early, and being able to provide counseling will decrease the number of violent crimes on people and animals. Second prize - $100 U.S.
Savings Bond The Importance of Animal
Guardianship The aged mare under my care was suffering from an acute case of salmonella poisoning. A few hours after my arrival, the veterinarian asked me to bring the horse into the barn and watch her. He had an outside emergency to attend to and did not see that the mare was in any pressing danger. I obediently sat in a lawn chair directly in front of the stocks where the mare was tightly confined, swabbing the solution on her neck and gently whispering encouraging words. I was alone when she began to go downhill and highly doubted my own abilities to rescue her. I had only received the limited training of a small town practice; they had taught me all that they could but I knew that this case was beyond my expertise. Not wanting to leave the mare long enough to go into the office and call Dr. Hansen, I diligently began to pray and watch out of the barn door, awaiting the sight of headlights that would signal the doctor’s arrival. I watched quietly as the mare struggled to breathe and spouted blood from the hole in her throat meant to help her do so. I cried at my own helplessness, but soon felt someone watching me. Without the fanfare of crunching gravel or the warning of headlights, Dr. Hansen appeared before my eyes. He walked to me, led the mare out of the stocks and out of the barn, to the place where she collapsed in tremors and soon fell still. That day I lost my very first
patient. I spent the remainder of the As I wiped the tears from my eyes, I stepped up to the plate at a mere fourteen years old and accepted my call to forever be a guardian of animals, in the vocational role of a veterinarian. The importance of animal guardianship is immeasurable. Since animals are unable to articulate any form of verbal communication, those domesticated are left to innocently rely on their human counterparts. Their hearts abound with limitless trust and amazing love. And we call ourselves the experts in the field? They act selflessly without the barriers of pride, lust, envy, or jealousy. They embody that which we could only hope to become. In this light, it is beyond my comprehension that anyone would desire to deliberately harm these innocent beings. However to my dismay, animal violence is quickly spreading across the United States at an alarming rate. And unfortunately, the lack of respect that causes such blatant disregard to life translates easily to other areas of life, causing increased violence around the country among youth especially. Though we cannot stop the natural processes of life that take our animals from us, we can stop the pointless violence. Teaching the importance of self-respect in schools and in homes reinforces and builds students’ self-esteem, thereby causing them to place higher values of respect on the lives of other creatures. Animal violence will escalate and it is a dangerous gateway that leads to tragedies such as that of Columbine High School. It is only a matter of when. As a member of the so-called
“Generation X,” I hereby commit to fulfilling my role as a guardian of animal
life. This entails raising the awareness of dangers associated with animal violence and
taking a stand for those unable to speak. Should I be chosen as a recipient of this
generous scholarship, I realize that it will not give me the right to feel superior to
anyone: humans and animals alike. It will only give you the right to expect Third prize – In Defense
of Animals Poster Why should violence toward
animals be taken as seriously as other forms of abuse? by Vicki Karbatchinskaia When a person constantly abuses an animal that animal loses all trust and respect that they once felt for humans. That person becomes the center of that animal's fears and worries, and some animals literally become ill from anxiety. They slowly become more and more sagacious of humans until they are forever apprehensive of them. A healthy, happy puppy could dramatically go from dynamic and vivacious to astute and timorous of practically everything. Isn't that the same thing that happens to people who are constantly abused? Like in any other form of abuse the abuser probably has mental or emotional problems and should be treated for it. When people abuse animals they usually have a higher chance of abusing people, too. That is because abusing animals is so much like abusing people, and in both there is always an emotional problem behind it on the part of the abuser. When someone abuses a person one of the pragmatic things for the law to do would be to send this person to a psychiatrist, because that person has some stored up abusive emotions. When a person abuses an animal most laws just brush the case under the carpet, and charge that person with a petty fine. That cannot be tolerated, because an animal abuser has the same emotional anger that a person carrying out any other type of abuse has. There is no more of a reason for abusing an animal than there is for abusing a person. Animals are just like people in a different body form. I don't see how abusing an animal is any less serious or any less important. Abusing as animal is just like abusing a person except they express their hurt emotions in a different way. When a person abuses someone else it shows they are violent. Animals are living, breathing, feeling creatures on Earth, just like people, and it is not acceptable for them to be treated with less respect and compassion than we treat people. We share the planet with all other animal species who deserve compassion, care, and protection from cruelty and abuse. Animal Cruelty by Samantha
McDonald So why must we continue to say they're owned by us, property of so and so? Do we want to do this? Do you want to be property? Not me, but in our society never the less our animals are our responsibility. They live with us and share our homes. That means they depend on us to take care of them and feed them and protect them. You ask why do we do this, I will tell you why. It's the least we can do to return all the love and companionship they give us. If you don't feel this way about your pet then I feel sorry, not for you, but for your pet. For it is how we treat them and take care of them that make them what they are. So what it all boils down to is that we as people have made our pets what they are today. Sadly, many pets are obtained on a whim and when it is no longer convenient the pets are given up or go from home to home. This is very upsetting and confusing to the pet not to mention very sad. They just want to be loved and cared for like us. Won't you help stop this unnecessary abuse to these wonderful pets and give them the best life you both can possibly have? We can start by fixing some of these problems in our own homes. Then support groups like Roots and Shoots and other groups to grow strong and help educate the world on how important all animals are to us and to the survival of our world. Please help us spread the word and you too can be the best guardian your pet could ever hope for. Contact Us In Defense of Animals It is the policy of In Defense of Animals to no longer use language that accepts the current concept of animals as property, commodities and/or things. Rather than refer to ourselves or others as "owners" of animals we share our lives with, we now refer to ourselves and others as "guardians" of our animal friends and to animals as "he" or "she" rather than "it." Guardians do not buy or sell animals; instead they rescue and adopt. We urge you to do the same. |