What is animal abuse? Animal cruelty comes in different forms, which include acts of violence towards any non-human, negligence or failure to provide an animal with a healthy environment, and causing psychological damage in forms such as terror, torment, or distress. What makes some people commit such horrible crimes voluntarily and consciously? Is it money or some kind of a disease? Most of the time, animal abuse is motivated by commercial goals. However, there are cases where people receive pleasure from inflicting pain, harm, and suffering to animals. Such condition is called zoosadism.

To prevent or at the very least minimize animal abuse and rescue our friends, we need to learn the types of animal cruelty which occur in our world. There are many specific reasons, forms, and types of animal abuse, which we are describing in this article. Some of you may even be guilty of animal neglect.

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Types of animal abuse: from the most common to the most horrifying

Today’s statistic shows improvement in the animal abuse problem: more pets are being adopted from the shelters, fewer animal companions are abandoned, more inhumane cruel farms are shut down, etc. Nevertheless, we still a lot of work to do! With that in mind, the most common type of animal abuse is simple negligence.

1. Animal neglect

Experts divide the forms of animal cruelty into two categories: passive and active. Negligence is classified as a passive form of animal abuse. It means that lack of proper action also matters. If a pet suffers from dehydration, starvation, parasite infestation, lives in unsuitable weather conditions or else, it is considered to be animal abuse. The pet owner should be educated in order to be able to provide welfare to their animal companion. The most common victims of animal neglect are dogs and cats.

2. Domestic animal abuse

Because domestic violence is often motivated by the desire for domination and power, it often goes hand in hand with animal abuse. If a person can hit their family member, they almost surely can hit their pet.  Experts are adamant that domestic violence is the most common background for animal cruelty in children. The importance of this statement cannot be overestimated, as nearly 32% of all domestic animal cruelty cases were committed by children.

Moreover, psychologists found a clear link between some specific psychological disorders and human violence toward animals. Intentional animal cruelty for the sake of pleasure is considered to be one of the three indicators (the Macdonald triad) of antisocial personality disorder. The other two factors include obsession with fire-setting and enuresis.

3. Farm animal abuse

Industrial farming is considered a form of animal abuse mainly due to the fact the animals there live and die in horrible suffering. Although many manufacturers argue that it is impossible to transport and slaughter a huge amount of animals in a “humane manner,” animal rights activists demand changes in this department. Did you know that broiler chickens are fed with steroids to grow faster, but the growth happens so fast that their heart, lungs, or bones often cannot keep up?  One in a hundred chickens dies because of the steroids dosages. Farm animals are forced to undergo dozens of painful, invasive procedures, such as castration, branding, tongue resection, dehorning, ear tagging, dubbing (removing the comb, earlobes, and wattles of poultry), beak-trimming, tail docking, etc.

4. Cultural rituals

Unfortunately, in some countries, such type of animal abuse is still a thing. For example, in some Asian countries, people capture elephants and use different cruel methods to “break the elephants’ spirit,” including starvation, sleep deprivation, dehydration, driving nails into the ears and feet. In some cultures, people continue to perform sacrificial rituals for healing or spirits’ blessing.

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5. TV and film industry

When you see a cute dog or maybe a wild animal on the screen, think about how they were tamed and trained, as well as in what conditions they were kept. In case you didn’t know, even some of the biggest-budget films had multiple precedents of maltreatment and even killed animals during the production.

6. Circus animal abuse

The use of animals in the circus has always been a controversial topic. There are hundreds of documentations reporting animal cruelty not only during the training process, but also in matters of caging, feeding, veterinary care, etc. Nowadays, some circuses present animal-free performances. The world’s first ban on animals in all circuses has been enacted in Bolivia.

The similar case is with the famous SeaWorld marine-mammal park, where the sea creatures also become severely maltreated and abused, families become torn apart, and all that happens in cramped, unnatural living conditions, which leads to much shorter lifespan, everyday pain and suffering. Such things happen across the whole world in nearly every aquarium or marine park.

7. Bullfighting

Animal rights activists consider bullfighting a barbaric blood sport that has absolutely no place in the modern civilized world. During this event, bulls suffer extreme stress and violent, slow, torturous death. And indeed, the matador rarely kills the bull instantaneous. The attendees are warned to be prepared for blood and multiple failed attempts at killing the animal.

8. Unnecessary laboratory experiments, demonstrations, and tests

Yes, we wouldn’t have many life-saving remedies without the experiments on animals. However, most such activities can surely be classified as animal abuse due to the shift in ethical standards and development of technologies. According to different scientists, experiments on dogs, rabbits, mice and other animals are almost never necessary, because the specialists have human organs-on-chips to model diseases and even test drugs, for example. Not to mentioned, that too often poorly designed products have led to so many meaningless animals’ lives.

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9. Most horrible types of animal abuse

Dogfighting, dog racing, fur farms, puppy mills, and other extremely violent forms of animal cruelty simply destroy the faith in humanity. Whether it is for entertainment or money, we believe that people who organize such activities or operate the business should receive maximum punishment. Killing dogs and cats to sell fake fur coats, killing dogs because they aren’t fast enough, force two dogs to fight for their lives through the use of drugs… This is just absolutely not normal. Blood, death, fights do happen in the wild world. But there’s always a natural reason behind it – a survival.

How to recognize animal cruelty

There are many abused animals around you, so it is important to recognize them to be able to provide help as soon as possible. Here are some important signs of animal abuse:

• noticeable trauma or poor body condition;
• signs of starvation or dehydration;
• signs of the animal being homeless or abandoned;
• lack of sanitation in the animal’s living area;
• tied or caged animal;
• evidence of the animal being trained to fight;
• too many animals living in one house or on one property (animal hoarding);

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Mahatma Gandhi, one of the greatest advocates for peace and nonviolence, stated:

We believe that an act of animal abuse just for the sake of sheer entertainment is indeed one of the most horrible crimes a human being is capable of committing. The described types of animal abuse showcase the true reality of the world we’re living in. And although things are getting better, we must not stop striving to change it to a better place. Different organizations like PETA continue their hard work to prevent animal abuse across the world, and you yourself can help them!