Animal Cruelty Needs To Stop

Posted by Sarah Son in English 1 · Giknis · A Band on

Hey there! I am Sarah Son, a freshman at Science Leadership Academy. In my previous blog post, I introduced my English project, which is called You and the World. My main focus is animal cruelty. In my previous research, I found a lot of alarming information about my topic. The results of graphs that I have found were very surprising. Recently, I interviewed a volunteer from SPCA in Philadelphia and her answers to my questions were very helpful.


IMG_9691
IMG_9691
This is a photo taken by Ruby Ginsburg, she was there with me while I was interviewing the volunteer at SPCA. 

In my original research, which is the interview, I found out even more about animal cruelty, mainly in the area of Philadelphia. It was quite shocking to hear what Sandy, the respondent, had told me. Her responses were so detailed and clear, it made a great interview. The first question that I asked her was, “When animals are found, how do they react towards people? Or in other words, how do they act when they are being pet?” She replied by saying “... it depends on the situation. Sometimes the animals that we find don’t like humans, really. They have a hard time adjusting to humans and then others are perfectly fine with them and they are willing to interact with humans.” She also told me that they once found a dog that was chained up and was very skinny. Once they took care of him, he was actually one of the most playful dogs they have seen in the SPCA. I’m quite glad that she even gave me an example.


    Another question that I asked is, “When animals are found, how are their conditions like?” Her response made me almost jump out of my seat. “It usually depends. Sometimes the homes that they are found in is perfectly fine, it’s just issues with the owner themselves. Other times, it’s just like small things. Other times we’ll find something pretty bad.” Then, she continued and gave me an example that was so unbelievable. Sandy said that they (SPCA), “... had raided a home in Frankfurt and we found about 241 cats, pretty much everywhere in the house. Just so you guys know, the limit for animals in Philadelphia you can have in your home at once is 12.” She also added that the amount of feces that was in the house was up to their knees when they raided the home. This really blew my mind. I did not want to accept what I was hearing but it was the truth, sadly. It was just shocking and heartbreaking.
    An important question that I saved for last to ask is, “Why do you think that people are cruel to animals?” Sandy replied to me by saying that she can’t really give me a perfect answer to this question. She said that she can’t imagine herself being cruel to any animal, I 100% agree with her. The thought of it just makes me so upset. She continued on and said, “... sometimes I feel that maybe it’s because people don’t see animals having feelings or maybe, they don’t necessarily care about those type of things so they’re just willing to do whatever they want for their own advantage.” She finished the question by saying that people are cruel and she can’t really justify how they think.
Here is another photo by Ruby! 
    It was great that I took this opportunity to do this interview because it was so interesting for me. I was actually talking to someone who works with animals who are abused and is helping me by giving information that is useful and hopefully will make people open their eyes more about this specific topic. As for my Agent of Change, which is an action that I take on to improve to help with animal cruelty, I was thinking about volunteering at SPCA, or another animal organization. I would like to dig deeper and see the animals for myself. I hope that I can help. Even if my help or change is small, I would do anything to try help stop animal cruelty. I am still wondering what is going on in the mind of an animal abuser. Stop animal cruelty now!
​

Annotated Bibliography

If you’d like to listen to the interview, click here!


Note for Ms. Giknis: There are few hyperlinks in this post because there is more in the first.


Comments (10)

Ruby Ginsburg (Student 2020)
Ruby Ginsburg

Sarah, your blog post is really informative. I learned a lot from the information you gave from your interview. I also learned a lot from being a witness to your awesome interview! Good job of adding your own opinions in response to what Sandy said. I can't wait to see what you end up doing for Agent of Change :)

Chandrea Lack (Student 2020)
Chandrea Lack

I like how your blog post included a lot of detail and you added your reactions to the responses too. It gave me a better visual of how you felt about the topic.

Amira Gouri (Student 2020)
Amira Gouri

Your post is great. I can tell you are very passionate about your topic. Your quotes from your interview are very helpful. It helps me understand more about the topic. I hope you succeed in your agent of change. :) Overall your writing is vivid. Keep up the good work!

Nasya Ie (Student 2020)
Nasya Ie

In your blog you put quotes from your interview, I thought they were great to show how shelter work hard to help animals. Good job!!! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Rasa Watson (Student 2020)
Rasa Watson

I learned a lot from this blog post. I learned about how animals react to humans, the conditions they are in when found, and a bit about why people are cruel to animals. The section about finding 241 cats is crazy, I couldn't imagine what that was like.