The HSUS estimates that nearly one million animals are abused or killed each year in the world. Dolly was a 6 year old female pit bull that was terribly abused. She was hit in the head with a baseball bat, which lead her to get severe brain damage. She also was lit on fire, they knew this because she had a large number of burns and scabs on her body. (www.animalsabused.org)

Animal abuse is an extremely significant problem that happens all over the world to every type of animal. 64% were dogs, 18% were cats, and 24% were other types of animals. Abuse can be done in many different ways: hoarding, neglect, shooting, fighting, and beating. The biggest effect that comes from this problem is the decrease in the population of animals. The majority of the time, when animals get abused, they end up getting killed from it. Even if they don’t die, they most likely will have mental or physical issues varying from lost body parts to retardation. Animal abuse does not only effect animals but it effects people too. When people get caught abusing animals, more people go to jail. This increases the crime rate. Animal abusers are 5 times more likely to commit violent crimes against people. (www.cfawr.org)

There are many things that cause animal abuser but the main cause is people that have been abused in the past tend to be the type of people that abuse other people or in this case, animals. More than 80% of family members being treated for child abuse also had abused animals. In 2/3 of these cases, an abusive parent had killed or injured a pet. (www.cfawr.org) Most people that were abused earlier on in their life are now angry or upset about it, so they feel that abusing others will get even.

The people that abuse animals could most likely have some sort of mental issue or sever =e anger problems. They might feel like abusing animals could take their anger out or they might not know how to handle it when their pet does something wrong. Also, someone who is on drugs might end up harming an animal just because they don’t know what they’re doing.

I believe the best way to solve this problem is to teach kids at a young age the importance of staying away from animal abuse. If kids start learning the effects of animal abuse and how much it can effect the world, they will most likely grow up to know what not to do and what to do if they see this problem anywhere. I think volunteers from different animal shelters and animal hospitals should travel around the United States to inform these kids about this dramatic problem. They need to know how to avoid becoming an abuser, and the after effects from hurting an animal. It would also be helpful to show them how to volunteer and donate to animal shelters. If they volunteer and spend time with the animals, studies show that the animals will gradually become more friendly, which means they have a better chance of getting adopted. Donating will help the shelters get better equipment and an overall environment for the animals. This real world problem keeps getting worse over the years and I believe this is the best way to solve it.

In conclusion, animal abuse is a very serious issue. No one really realizes how much it effects the world and the people and animals in it. This problem is only going to get worse if we don’t try to make a difference. We need to do everything we can to help get rid of or reduce this problem and it needs to be done as soon as possible.