Animal abuse is an issue that is widely known, but often goes unnoticed. Around the world, hundreds of animals are abused and killed every day. Abusing an animal is like abusing an infant. They cannot fight back, they cannot fend for themselves, and all they can do is sit there, cry, and wait for it to be over. Unlike humans, animals do not have a voice to say what happened to them. Voice or no voice, they have hearts, souls, and feelings and should be treated like any other living organism. Thankfully, organizations such as the ASPCA are working to save these abused animals and give them the life they deserve.

The ASPCA has made it available for people to donate money each month to homeless and abused animals. This money goes towards meals for the animals in the shelter. Puppy mills are one of the most common types of animal cruelty that the ASPCA saves animals from. A puppy mill is a facility where breeders are breeding dogs in harsh conditions just for profit. According to the ASPCA, the United States has about 10,000 puppy mills. The abuse from the runners of the puppy mills not only consists of harsh living conditions. “When female breeding dogs reach a point of physical depletion and can no longer reproduce, they are often killed.” These cruel human beings are killing the dogs only because they no longer provide them with profit. That it utterly unnecessary, it would be like saying you have to be killed after you retire because you are no longer making money. When used for the wrong reason, euthanasia is another form of animal cruelty. Euthanasia is a medication given as a shot to animals that are suffering. The medicine travels straight to the heart and stops it from beating without causing any pain to the animal. This is the most humane way to end the suffering of sick animals. Euthanasia is considered cruelty when shelters put healthy animals to sleep because they are overcrowded or the animals do not get adopted. “Animal shelters cannot humanely house and support all these animals until their natural deaths. They would be forced to live in cramped cages or kennels for years, lonely and stressed, and other animals would have to be turned away because there would be no room for them.” This is no reason to end the lives of these animals. If there is not enough room for them, then they need to be relocated to another shelter or they need to expand their facility to provide more room for animals. Relocating them to another shelter that has room for them will give them a chance to be adopted and go to a loving home that they deserve.

Animal cruelty needs to be addressed and stopped as soon as possible. Two legs or four, fur or hair, tail or no tail, a life is a life no matter what the size. How can one possibly live knowing they ended an innocent life? These helpless animals need hope, a voice, a saving grace. All they need is a little love.