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Giovanni Castro
Lynda Haas
Writing 39C
August 12, 2015
Canine Abuse
It should not come as a surprise to see people abusing of animals in exchange for money.
Often times, people take a step beyond this reasoning and abuse animals for the mere
entertainment of observing pain. Either way, when this notion is applied to the creature people
refer to humans best-friend, it is controversial, and frankly utterly disgraceful, to watch small
defenseless newborn pups suffer both physically and mentally to such a large extent. Bearing in
mind that same newborn may never see life beyond the cage he or she was born in thus the
damage one creates from abuse leaves scars in all parts of the dogs body. What some may call
puppy mills, or puppy farming, I call captivity of our best-friends; scientists merely point the
obvious with the use of numbers, however the moral issues behind this extreme case of canine
abuse is abnormal.
To emphasize my ideas, I will cover large basis on not only the quality of typical puppy
mills, but also the psychological factors that allow a person proceed with this level of abuse. It is
vital to comprehend the motive for why a person thinks along the lines of abuse, I shall therefore
review the scientific research of Animal Abuse and Psychiatric Disorders (2002) as proof of this
specific statistical analysis. Further enhancing my argument, canine abuse has been developing
from an earlier age, as the ASPCA article on Pit Bull Cruelty Facts and FAQs accordingly states
that there are some accounts of dog fights dating back to the 1750s(Pit Bull Cruelty). To
contextualize these dog fights: from around the date previously stated, the bulldog breed were

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used to bait larger animals, once the government banned baiting, these dog owners threw their
bull dogs as gladiators and watch which dog was the strongest. This idea goes to show that
humans have a tendency to fulfill their satisfaction usually by aggression, which unfortunately
targets beings that are completely uninvolved.
My focus is nevertheless on puppy farms. There are several non-profit organizations that
attempt to battle against this crime of abuse. The approach they usually take is that of precaution,
meaning: they warn potential dog customers where to purchase a dog in order to not stimulate
puppy mills. Now, what exactly consists of a puppy mill? Why are these places considered
terrible environments? In an Australian discussion paper Puppy Farms (2010) written by Heather
Neil, CEO of RSPCA Australia, she provides photographs and very clear descriptions of the state
in which dogs are raised. Life in cages leads to problems associated with basic care, as she states:
drinking water is often insufficient, and it may also be contaminated (Puppy farms). The
consequences for providing this type of drinking water are similar to when providing to a
average human-being since it causes serious gastrointestinal upsets (Puppy farms) leading to
diseases which, if not treated, may further result in death. In addition, lacking quality in the
supply of water is particularly disturbing to bitches: since they feed their pups, more water is
required, and given the high level of contamination, both the mother and her pups are put into
severe jeopardy. This is one of many different issues directly linked with puppy mills. Even
though this unregulated environment is an act of astounding selfishness, what is worrying is the
mental state of the person who administers this business.
This notion recalls the scientific paper mentioned previously produced by Roman
Gleyzer, MD, Alan R. Felthous, MD, and Charles E. Holzer III, PhD. As these three
professionals exploits the correlation between animal mistreatment and mental disorders, they

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state that starting in 1987, this behavior [cruelty to animals] was a criterion for conduct
disorder and for APD [antisocial personality disorder] (Animal Cruelty and Psychiatric
Disorders). The link between these two are abundantly strong, given that an average human
being would perceive the quality of a puppy farm as a clear indication of mistreatment. It calls to
attention that those who abuse are diagnosed with such disorders are also subject to possessing
persecutory delusions (Animal Cruelty and Psychiatric Disorders), which looking up the
definition means that the person is delusional of thinking that it a harmful event will eventually
happen. If you take a medical perspective, the action for a person to abuse an animal may be
accounted for given the health state of that person, but should that person be operating a business
which involves lives of other beings? It is simply unfair for the dogs under captivity to be
mistreated by someone not able to handle simple tasks in life. In my view, an average human
being, a person who can function in society, should reallocate the resources used in order to
prevent abuse and create a healthy and clean environment for these puppies.
But what defines an average human being? One who does not own puppy mills as a
business? If one examines the more extreme nature of humans, those who might function just as
well as a regular shop-owner, may as well be a dog abuser. The abuse is scaled to a larger than
expected occurrences because there are unaccounted incidents that prevents a person responsible
for the abuse to pay for the consequences. There has been a reported case that has more
bitterness than sweetness in the story, which developed into the New York Times Magazine
article The Animal-Cruelty Syndrome (2010). The first sentence portrays exactly the level of
madness of the guilty people: May afternoon a female pit bull terrier was doused in gasoline
and set alight (The Animal-Cruelty Syndrome). One can only feel grief from this story; it is not
necessary to read the full article that one is already shocked by this act of punishment. As I

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mentioned, this is an extreme case of abuse, it is more deliberate than the examples of puppy
mills, yet the same concept is applied since people who suffer from mental disorders are
responsible. More specifically, later in the article, the author Charles Siebert points out that
usually teenagers have aggressive-conduct disorder and unusual signs of aggression, and
perform these cruel stunts out of boredom (The Animal-Cruelty Syndrome). Apply this
insensitive analysis on the puppy mills: imagine a teenager taking care of the mill just takes
pleasure in watching other suffer. Pick your description, mine would is: grotesque.
A tear drops every moment I read about these slavery acts with puppies. Yet the
unfortunate truth that lied embedded within my arguments against this horror, is that all of us dog
consumers are contributors. It is a profitable industry that deals with an exceedingly high valued
commodity. Dog lovers are definitely biased towards revoking the rights of having puppy mills.
Ironically, if that dog lover, who probably owns a dog, reflects on his prior acts, the dog owner
would probably not have bought his or her pup had it not been the puppy mill. As Mary-Jo
Dionne mentions in her article: in our obsession with having a purebred and having it quickly,
we feed the industry (Puppy Hell: The Horrors of Puppy Mills). In basic economics terms, the
demand is so high that the quality of the good tends to fall, since production cannot be
sustainable. Dogs are victims regardless of the type of person who owns his rights. By
mentioning this, think about the word choice: owns his rights, industry, consumers,
businesses et cetera; in this sense, all these words already suggests that dogs are inevitable
targets for abuse since whatever one purchases it is within their rights to do whatever they please.
Confusingly, government provisions for animal cruelty date back to the 1800s, when the
Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 was passed in the U.K. Parliament, implying that this notion was
spreading more than two-hundred years ago. More specifically to canine abuse, the Australian

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government passed The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1986, dictating that observed
owners intend to provide minimum standards of accommodation care to dogs (Code Of
Practice For The Private Keeping Of Dogs). One might think there are worldwide regulations
puppy mill owners and other abusers are not following, and that they should be locked away.
However, the PETA NGO states, there such things called puppy pipelines, which basically
means that dealers who want to avoid relevant U.S. laws look elsewhere to continue doing
business, like for example smugglers who bring puppies into the U.S. from Mexico (Puppy
Mills: Dogs Abused for the Pet Trade). There is seemingly no end for canine abuse. If the person
harming the pup is not mentally unstable, then there is the greatest issue of a capitalist society:
money. Humans put their self-interest before their empathy in all kinds of situations, but
pertinent to the stimulation of puppy mills is the quintessential example of such a claim.
To conclude: what specific courses of action can those concerned with the welfare of
vulnerable pups ponder to solve such a loose-ended issue of canine abuse? It was made explicitly
clear that their lives are in danger, due to the unregulated quality of puppy mills, the lack of
animal protection from those who are mentally challenged to sustain unaggressive acts and the
driving factor of money causing a stimulus to the market for contraband. There have been several
NGO initiatives that approach government officials in order to convince the officials to put
animal welfare in their agenda.

Works Cited

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Puppy Mills: Dogs Abused for the Pet Trade. Peta.org. Sun. 19. Jul. 2015.
http://www.peta.org/issues/companion-animal-issues/companion-animals-factsheets/puppymills-dogs-abused-pet-trade/
Puppy farms. Rspca.org.au. Sun. 19. Jul. 2015. http://kb.rspca.org.au/afile/322/55/
Puppy Hell: The Horrors of Puppy Mills. Moderndogmagazine.com. Fri. 17. Jul. 2015.
http://moderndogmagazine.com/articles/puppy-hell-horrors-puppy-mills/269
First came battery chickens. Now we have battery dogs. Theguardian.com. Fri. 17. Jul. 2015.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/feb/03/puppy-farms-battery-dogs
Animal Cruelty and Psychiatric Disorders. Jaapl.org. Thu. 16. Jul. 2015.
http://www.jaapl.org/content/30/2/257.full.pdf+html
The Animal-Cruelty Syndrome. Nytimes.com. Thu. 16. Jul. 2015.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/magazine/13dogfighting-t.html?_r=0
Pit Bull Cruelty Facts and FAQs. Aspca.org. Mon. 20. Jul. 2015. http://www.aspca.org/fightcruelty/dog-fighting/pit-bull-cruelty
Code Of Practice For The Private Keeping of Dogs. Depi.vic.gov.au. Fri. 17. Jul. 2015.
http://www.depi.vic.gov.au/pets/dogs/legal-requirements-for-dog-owners/code-of-practice-forthe-private-keeping-of-dogs
Wikipedia. Wikipedia.com. Mon. 20. Jul. 2015.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruelty_to_Animals_Act_1876

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