Transcriber: 2022: Valeria Lievano Lara Reviewer: Anna Sobota
Our current animal rights are not adequate to the needs of animals.
We need services that will protect our animals,
services that care about what is in the animals’ best interest.
To not only provide animals with homes, with food, water and shelter,
but that also have loving people with no past history of animal abuse.
In almost all states,
animal abusers are allowed to adopt after being charged with animal abuse.
There are only 15 states
that don’t allow animal abusers to adopt once more.
I am suggesting that animal shelters be allowed
to check up on animals after they are adopted.
This is a similar system as child services,
providing care and effort in defining not only homes but safe, loving homes.
Because is it enough to provide food, water and shelter
or do we ask more of shelters?
And adopters?
Do we ask them to treat their animals with love and respect?
Why would anybody not want to?
This is something I don’t understand.
Why would anybody want to harm an animal
when there’s so much benefit from treating them with love and care?
There are two kinds of negligence.
Some animals are placed into homes with no adequate food and water.
But other animals are bought and not adopted.
They are bought for how they reflect on their animal owners
by their breed or their appearance.
These animals will go through their entire life
not knowing what it’s like to be loved.
These animals are managed and not cared for,
and these are the households that do not own animals.
It is said by “Mad Paws”, a popular online blog,
that if you cannot provide your animal with an hour of love a day,
then you should not own that animal.
Out of 24 hours in a day, you are only expected to give them one.
And yet some people don’t even do that.
These cases are even happening around us.
There’s a man in my community who owns five retired Hound Dogs.
They are caged up all day and night,
without any human contact except for him
coming out once a day to feed them and fill up their water.
Is that enough to provide the essentials?
A dog house and a bowl of food, is that our expectation of society?
I expect more.
I think we need to raise our bar.
In the majority of countries, we do not have adequate animal rights.
But these cases like these make me think
that there should be laws in place to allow shelters to adopt
or to check up on animals that have been adopted,
checking that they are a healthy weight,
that they do have adequate water and food,
and that they are not attention deprived.
The majority of countries do not have adequate animal laws.
In places like Vietnam, Iran and China, they do not have any animal abuse laws.
They do not prohibit fur hunting
and nor do they support the UDAW -
the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare.
The UDAW is a proposed inter-governmental agreement
that recognizes that animals are sentient.
These three countries do not have any consciousness for animal suffering.
They are the lowest rated countries when it comes to animal rights.
The US is not much better when it comes to fur farming and supporting the UDAW.
But when it comes to animal rights,
we have more laws than China, Iran and Vietnam.
One of our laws is the PACT act which stands for
Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture.
This act, which was signed into law in 2019,
prohibits egregious acts towards animals,
specifically crushing, impaling, suffocating, burning
or drowning your animal.
What does it say about the world that we need a laws saying not to burn your pet?
The truth is that these things still happen today, despite what the law says.
This is the world we live in
and our laws aren’t doing much to change it.
When you adopt an animal,
you’re committing to keeping them safe throughout their life.
Even if the time comes up where you have to give your animal up,
you need to make sure that they go to a safe place.
Neglect can also be demonstrated when an animal's time has come,
at which point some people strategy is to leave them when they become too needy.
When I say needy, I mean needing extra veterinary care or extended attention.
This is either too expensive or not worth their time.
I believe when an animal is adopted
that they have the right to die in a loving home, in a dignified fashion.
But if we treat animals as property, as something we own,
then we have the right to dispose of them, however we wish.
However, if we make sure every animal is treated as part of the family,
then we have the responsibility to make sure that they go to a safe place.
Because is it enough to provide them with the essentials?
Is that our true expectation of society?
It’s not mine.
I expect adopters to treat their animals with love and respect.
This year, these are the questions we should be asking.
What boundaries should be set when it comes to animals?
Because are the essentials truly enough?
I believe that we need to provide the essentials but go above and beyond.
Thank you.