Defining Animal Abuse

Trying to understand animal rights people.

It is human nature to want to surround yourself with things you like. If animal rights people like animals, it would seem logical to conclude they too would want to be near animals. That probably means own pets, or pasture buddies. In an effort to protect animals from would be animal abusers, the animal rights people lobby the government to pass laws that limit ownership or at the very least expressly dictate how each animal is to be considered adequately cared for. Surely these people understand that they too will be subjected to the same laws they insister are passed.

Regulations are being slowly passed that are defining just what constitutes animal abuse. Husbandry practices that have been accepted for decades are now being labelled as animal abuse. Thanks to animal rights groups who perceive abuse in all manors of things, pet owners and livestock farmers could find themselves serving jail time because house cats were allowed to catch and eat mice. Or ranches will be walking the plank because they allowed their cattle to drink out of a dug out.

How Animal Right people perceive animal abuse.

Is a dog that is offered food out of an old cooking pot experiencing abuse while the dog who is fed out of a stainless steel bowl not? Is one of these dogs more loved than the other? Is a dog that is given straw for a bed less cared about then a dog given a fluffy cotton dog bed bought at Costco?

Can the design and shape of a water bowl measure to what degree an animal is being abused? If a horse is offered water out of plastic rain barrel instead of a store bought galvanized steel water trough, is it abused? What if the horse was offered water out of a discarded bath tub? Should the owner of that horse be charge with neglect and abuse?

What if an owner gave oats to a horse by sprinkling it on the ground? Maybe you would say that the proper way to feed oats is in a bucket or feeding trough. Either way, the horse is getting oats. Is it abusive to ask a horse to eat oats off the ground? I know some would say yes. We have been told here at the GuZoo that our deer and elk should be fed grain in a trough raised off the ground. Apparently some believe that asking the deer to reach to the ground is cruel. Someone should tell this to all the wild deer and elk out there.

Some people believe that feeding commercial dog food to ones pet dog is not in the best interest of the canine. Some say dogs should be feed raw meat and bones with diced up fresh veggies. There is a huge movement towards fresh dog food; whole isles are being devoted to it in many of the large pet food stores. Yet, GuZoo is criticized for feeding raw meat and bones to lions, tigers and wolves. Go figure. I am trying to understand. Maybe people would be happy if we fed Ol’Roy or Iams to Walace our lion.

In the wild both the grizzly bear and the cougar have been documented feeding off dead animals such as a deer or elk. Unable to consume the entire carcass in just one meal, the predator will cover the carcass with grass and sticks to conceal it from scavengers and return to feed day after day until it is all consumed. Yet accusations of health risks to Guzoo animals have been raised over rotting decaying carcasses in our carnivore enclosures. I believe that animals rights people find dead carcasses abusive to their eyes, so they insist it must violate the animals in some way as well.

I think it is time to finally challenge the ideologies that project human values and truths onto animals.

We don’t consider the water from a stagnant hole in the ground consumable for humans, so society believes that it is abuse to force an animal to drink out of it. Never mind that this has been a common practice for decades, even hundreds of years in the domestic cattle industry, and I haven’t heard that bovines are on the endangered list, wiped out from generations of drinking out of a dug out.

We don’t expect our children to eat off the floor, so people consider it inappropriate to think animals should eat off the ground.

Humans would get sick eating meat that was left exposed to the elements and flies for days at a time, so we assume it must make animals sick as well. Animal rights people would argue that animals can and should only be feed food fit for human consumption. Do otherwise, and they would cry animal abuse.

Humans don’t like to bath in dirty water, so proper husbandry suggests that captive animals should be given nothing less than crystal clear water to submerse in as well. Anything less, is abuse according to animal rights people.

We don’t lock our children in cages, so keeping an animal in a cage is abuse.

We don’t eat off dishes that haven’t been sterilized through a dish washer, so we imagine that it would be unhealthy for animals as well. People who project their values onto animals are of the mind that forcing animals to eat out of less than clean dishes is abuse.

People are encouraged to used antibacterial soap, and surface cleaners in their homes. This ideal is projected onto husbandry practices for house pets and farm animals. Society is leaning towards the opinion that failing to sterilize food prep areas, cages, or storage facilities is poor husbandry practice and boarders on abuse.

People in North America don’t like to see dirt in their house or in their front yard; they want smooth clean floors or carpet and a blanket of evenly cut, weed free grass outside. This is what makes people happy, so this must be what animals like and what makes them happy. Some people believe that housing animals on dirt floors or ground surfaces is abuse.

We don’t like to see our feces inside or outside of our dwelling space or even sitting in the toilet, so we project this repulsion onto animals and consider an animal that has poop in its living space poorly maintained and thus abused. Forgetting that poop is commonly used by animals to communicate a great variety of things to other animals. Some animals even use poop to birth their babies in.

We as human are very susceptible to cold exposure so we assume that all animals must be as well. Forgetting that compared to humans, many animals have much better coping abilities to tolerate both extreme heat and cold. But many would argue that any dog left outside in the winter is abused. Or in our case, a tiger laying on snow must be suffering.

Many people with pet dogs bathe them and brush them regularly, so when they see a farm dog dirty with tuffs of winter hair half shed out they assume the dog must be neglected and abused.

We feed twinkies, pop and red liquorish to our own children, yet cry abuse when one feeds bread and cinnamon buns to goats.

In conclusion, I would like to say that if someone wants to feed their dog out of a sterilized, stainless steel bowl, offer filtered water, feed only food fit for human consumption, supply a soft cushy cotton fabric bed, groom and bath him regularly, and clean is poop up the moment he defecates, all the power to you. But don’t holler animal abuse when the next person doesn’t want to supply those luxuries.

Get with the program people. Animals are not and never have been people. They have different needs and abilities. Sure they feel pain, and yes we have a responsibility to care for and respect them. But it was never God’s intension for people to revere animals with the same high regard as people. This is not God’s plan. Animals have their place and their purpose. Sometimes that purpose is to feed people, sometimes that purpose is simply to bring joy into the lives of people. Animals can heal a broken heart, offer companionship and safety. But always remember they are animals, not people. God’s gift to us, to love and care for, but NEVER to raise up to be equal with His most favoured creation….Mankind.


Irene