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Abuse is to hurt or injure by maltreatment. Abuse can be used in many different forms but
never used in a form for good. Some types of abuse are self abuse, drug abuse, sexual abuse, and animal abuse. These are all very important subjects that need to be looked upon and researched so that they are all kept from being used. Animal abuse is a very important one that isn�t looked upon possibly because it's "animal" abuse and not "human" related abuse. Animal abuse needs to be stopped.
- Experimentation Labs
The most common place where animal abuse takes place is in experimentation labs. In these labs all types of animals are used. Rats, cats, dogs, monkeys, and rabbits are only a few of the mistreated species. These labs are supposed to house and feed every animal correctly but very often that does not happen. Despite the best, most modern equipment available it has been routinely reported that animals are hosed down with cold water in their cages, splattering feces everywhere, and left with the presence of crystallized urine and matted hair on cage bars. Some animals weren't so lucky to get hosed down with cold water. Primates at a federally funded laboratory have been found dead in their cages from dehydration when their feet got stuck in the cage bars and they were unable to reach water. Such tragedies could be prevented if cages were cleaned and maintained properly on schedule.
Los Alamos scientist use a computer that can view the human thought process and make it possible to "map" the human brain while experimenters at other facilities continue to stick probes into monkeys' and cats' heads. This is only one of the many cruel acts that have been carried out on animals for decades. At the University of Oregon a kittens' eyes were sewn shut and was forced to then jump from a HEIGHT onto a platform surrounded by water so they could study the effects of sight deprivation on the brain. At an institute for mental health one "scientist" implant electrodes into cats' heads and forces them to endure "recording sessions" for up to 48 hours. These experimentations are not only dense and stupor but they are also not needed for any reason.
Animals that are used in experiments are often nurslings. These nurslings are kept in a
room called a nursery but this is usually a euphemism for just another room with mental cages. These baby animals are snatched from their natural mothers at birth or shortly thereafter and slated to be used in experiments. This is not healthy for the baby or the mother because of the natural boding between the two. Decades of repetitive experiments on "maternal deprivation" continue despite obvious findings. Removed from their mothers protection, baby monkeys are exposed to deliberately frightening situations such as the introduction of natural enemies like snakes, or electric shocks, so experimenters can observe
their psychological breakdown. These primates develope stereotypical behaviors including incessant rocking and self-mutilation. This procedure is so heartless and evil. These animals from birth live in nothing but a spinless and cold-blooded world.
One reason why small animals such as rabbits and mice are used in testing is because of the new, and non-ending arrivals of deadly diseases. In culture laboratories all over the world these animals are being made sick with deadly viruses cultured in test tubes. Viruses many more times deadly and violently than the famous virus HIV-- such as the Marburg and Ebola viruses -- are studied in animals, and mistakes in handling them have led to disaster. More than 500 monkeys at Reston, VA research laboratory were killed by the military after an outbreak of a virus fatal to human beings. Just a few feet away was a day care center that remained uninformed as military personnel in full protective gear entered the facility and sealed it. Human stupidity has caused numerous amounts of innocent animals to die as well as putting humans in danger.
In the testing lab primates, including our close relative the chimpanzee, may be "containerized" for days or weeks in restraint devices or for years in isolation chambers. Often, the animals cannot move their arms or legs and are hooked up to electrodes that record brain or muscle activity or deliver foot shocks for "misbehaviors". Animals are restrained for days in stereotaxic chairs to avoid the experimenter's inconvenience of having to handle them for procedures as simple as blood withdrawal. Chimpanzees inside SEMA, a federally funded laboratory, became insane after spending years in isolation chambers that allowed nothing but the continual hum of the air filtration system reaching them. Conscious baboons at the University of Pennsylvania were tormented and mocked by researchers after being disabled by blows to their heads.
Primate housing is a major problem today in primate testing. Try to imagine spending several years in a shower stall on a rack over your own waste and you've got the picture. Although the Animal Welfare Act states that a cage must be large enough for an animal to make "normal postural adjustments", which vary from species, adult primates may still be confined to cages that allow them only enough space to stand upright and lie down. In most labs, no effort is made to allow touching, social grooming, or other social contact that is very vital to primates, and rarely are any objects or amusements provided to help pass the time of our intelligent relatives in the animal kingdom. Using monkeys as surrogate humans is never a good idea because the stress of confinement is unnatural to the species, and the stress of capture, shipping, caging, and experimentation compromises their immune systems, and leads to psychological deterioration and neuroses causing inaccurate test results.
The Treatment of animals alone is unbelievable. Animals are sometimes not even attended to at all in some laboratories. At the City of Hope, a federally funded laboratory have records showing that animals were routinely left unattended for periods of up to 20 hours. Only 23 of 54 dogs slated for cancer experiments at the City of Hope survived long enough for the actual experiments. The rest died of infections, poisoning, anesthesia overdoses, and other causes linked to gross negligence, inadequate veterinary care, and improper housing. People working at laboratories often develop "humor" over the unhealthy and obvious phycological complications with the animals because of their treatment. Employees often give the animals names in discourage of their neglect. For example, the dogs at Write State were named after brands of beer and one was named "Dizzy" because she endlessly circled her cage. At the Royal College of Surgeons, one baby monkey had her name, "CRAP", tattooed on her forehead.
- Entertainment Abuse
Not only are animals used for testing but animals are also used in entertainment. Just as
animals are abused in testing they are abused in entertainment. Greyhound racing is one form of entertainment that has been known as death in the fast lane. The natural speed of greyhounds has been exploited for human benefit since the ancient Egyptians. Greyhound racing is now a big business; $3.4 billion was wagered on dog races in the United States in 1991, at 58 tracks in 18 states, from Oregon to Florida. These racers attracted more than 30 million bettors that year. The cruelty of greyhound racing begins with the dogs' training. Each year approximately 100,000 small animals, most of them rabbits, are used as live bait to teach young dogs to chase lures around the track. They are encouraged to chase and kill the live lures hanging from horizontal poles so they will chase the inanimate lures during the races. Sometimes the rabbits legs are broken so that their cries excite the dogs; guinea pigs are often used because they scream. When the animals are "used up", the dogs are then permitted to tear them up. Less aggressive dogs are sometimes placed in a cage with a rabbit or other animal and not released or fed until they have killed the cage companion. Many of these dogs are trained in Texas and Kansas, where anti-cruel codes are weaker or less strictly enforced than in other states. 30% born into the industry will never make it to the race track as they are shot, destroyed, or sold to laboratories. Those who do become racers are kept in cages that are 3 foot by 3 foot. The bodies of 52 dogs who had been shot to death
were found scattered between two trees in Arizona. Investigators later found the bodies of 72 more greyhounds in the same field. Most were two or three years old and had been killed because their trainer thought they were not fast enough to win purse money.
Marine mammal parks are also a center for animal abuse. Each year, orcas leap through the sky for a handful of fish and dolphins are used as self propelled water skis. Trainers often say that they wouldn't perform if they weren�t happy but the truth of it all is they are forced to perform. Newly captured dolphin dolphins and orcas are forced to learn tricks because if they refuse to do the tricks food is withheld and the animals are isolated. The tanks themselves are also harmful. They are cleaned with chlorine, copper sulfate, and other harsh chemicals that irritate dolphins eyes causing them to swim with their eyes closed and even making their skin peel. The tanks have also been reported to have made dolphins go insane. Dolphins use echolocation to communicate. In tanks, the reverberations from their own sonar bouncing off walls drives some dolphins insane. The stress on some dolphins causes them to commit suicide by deliberately crashing into the side of the tank again and again.
Circuses are another type of entertainment that doesn�t take care of animals the way they should. Many circuses don�t have much money, and, as a result the animals they use often suffer from inadequate care. The animals, sometimes quite large and very active, are kept in very small cages used to transport them, and they are only permitted for very short periods of time to perform. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was cited for 65 violations of the AWA ( Animal Welfare Act ). As a result of traveling, drinking water is limited, and cleaning the animals and their cages may take low priority, causing a real hardship for animals like elephants, who normally bathe frequently. The hot summer months can especially be hard on animals such as bears, while others, like lions, suffer mostly from the cold. If the animals
were to get sick there it is hard to have qualified veterinarians to treat the exotic animals. The animals have suffered and died from lack of care. The training of the animals is also very tragic. They are beaten, whipped, and sometimes drugged. The whips, tight collars, muzzles, electric prods, bullhooks, and other tools used during the performance are proof that they are forced into performing.
- Government Abuse
One of Americas most looked upon and admired associations is a helper in animal abuse.
NASA is spending $33.2 million to force monkeys to suffer through agonizing, invasion procedures. Fourteen electrode wires sunk into seven muscles in the monkeys' arms and legs tunnel under their skin and exit from a hole carved in their backs. More electrodes are inserted into the monkeys' brains, their exposed skulls covered with metal caps and eight holes are drilled into their skulls to accommodate a plastic "halo" so they cannot move their heads. Many of these monkeys have mutilated themselves trying to rip the wires out from under their skin, despite the fact that NASA binds them in straight jackets. After going through all of these painful surgeries, the monkeys' are then blasted into space alone for 14 days. During the two week period, the monkeys' will be completely restrained, obtaining food from a
"sipper tube". NASA claims it helps study the effects of weightlessness on human astronauts, yet NASA already has data on human beings who have spent 400 days in space at a time. If it goes wrong in space there is no one to help them so some of these experiments are death traps.
- Product Testing
Every year an estimated 14 million animals suffer and die in painful tests determining the "safety" of cosmetics and household products. Substances ranging from eye shadow and soap to furniture polish and oven cleaner are tested on rabbits, rats, guinea pigs, dogs, and other animals, despite the fact that the test results do not help prevent or treat human illness or injury. Albino rabbits often receive the substances in their eyes while the animals are often immobilized in stocks from which only their heads protrude often receiving no anesthesia during the tests. Sometimes the tests result in swollen eyelids, inflamed irises, ulceration, bleeding, massive deterioration, and blindness. During the tests their eye lids are held open with clips. Many animals break their necks as they struggle to escape. In acute toxicity tests a substance of food is forced by tube into the animals� stomach or through holes cut into their throats. It may be injected under the skin, into a vein, or into the lining of the abdomen; mixed into lab food; inhaled through lab gas mask; or applied into the eyes, rectum, or vagina. In these experiments there are convulsions, labored breathing, diarrhea, constipation, emaciation, skin eruptions, abnormal posture, and bleeding from the eyes nose and mouth.
- Alternatives
Using alternatives to animal testing can dramatically reduce the killing of animals in labs. Before the end of the century hopeful there will be signs on lab door saying �no animal admittance. Alternatives to animal testing are efficient and reliable, both for cosmetics and household product tests for "medical research". In most cases, non-animal methods take less time to complete, cost only a fraction of what the animal experiments they replace costs, and are not plagued with species differences that make extrapolation difficult or impossible. Avon has been using the Eytex and Skintex method. Eytex, developed by InVitro International, assesses irritancy with protein alteration system. A vegeTABLE protein from the jack bean mimics the cornea�s reaction when exposed to foreign matter. The Skintex formula, also developed by InVitro International, is made from the yellowish meat of the pumpkin rind; it mimics the reaction of human skin to foreign substances. Both can be used to kind the toxity of 5,000 materials. Another way to put a stop to animal abuse is to spay and neuter all pets. One type of animal abuse that isn�t really taken into consideration is dissection. There are many alternatives to dissection, such as activies taken place in school. There are many books and places on the internet to get the same education and virtual experience without taking a life.
- Conclusion
In conclusion, animal abuse is a sad fact that our country and many other countries are dealing with right now. With the help of letters to selected officials, department stores no longer carrying animal related articles, and celebrities such as Christy Turling, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, and Claudia Schiffer pledging to never wear furs is a very helping way to the top of solving this problem. The year 2000 is rolling around the corner and hopefully animal abuse will come to an end.
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Animal Emancipation, Inc.
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