Less gore, more focus on the real issue.

During this week’s initial research on the cruelty of animals, specifically canines, Michelle and I decided to look through the general cases of abuse and stories that have shown up in the news and write about how we would like to respond to them. The first one that we came across described numerous events of neglect towards domestic dogs living with incapable owners. The article also describes the ways which the dogs were mistreated and how it has lead towards many stricter laws for future caretakers, but even though there are specialized police force out there like the ASPCA, most animal injuries go unnoticed. Even with the addition of stronger laws that are meant to protect these animals by setting a standard of harsher jail times and fees attached to the abusers, there is no way for these people to come to the realization that, “oh maybe I actually could get in pretty serious trouble by doing this” because of the serious lack of PSA’s in the US. Online articles may depict the stories of the animals and punishments that went along with it, but if I were not doing research on the subject, I would not ever come across it. The focus is more on showing the graphic nature of the abuse to the readers, maybe because of the gore factor, rather than giving the public more knowledge about recognizing the signs of an abuser, or the seriousness of animal cruelty. If the commercials for television took less emphasis on the need for funding the veterinary shelters and more towards the facts of jail time for criminals. The dollar a day fund only asks for money and shows a picture of a skinny dog. Instead what they should be doing is linking together both of the topics, or creating multiple advertisements where they can merge the focus groups. As important as I believe it is to fund a great project, I think that is only half the battle. Maybe we should be more concerned with stopping the acts before they are committed, and then shelters and animal hospitals will not have to continue to expand with rising populations.

http://fortheloveofthedogblog.com/news-updates/dogs-that-inspired-stronger-animal-cruelty-laws