International Domestic Animal Abuse Final Post (#3)

Posted by Nia Hammond in English 1 - Dunn on

The last few blog posts, issues of the abuse of domestic animals, cats and dogs more specifically, have been discussed. Some cases of abuse I mentioned in Post #1 included members of the al-Quaeda terrorist group surgically implanting bombs in dogs on airplane flights in America, animals being found in the streets and turned in to shelters or animal patrol, and for fighting. Statistics mentioned in my second post showed reasons as to why families of certain members of a family abuse their pets, such as discipline, to intimidate others, or simply because they do not care enough to make sure their pet it safe and healthy. While it may take a while to reverse all of this cruelty towards innocent animals, the process does start small, and there is really no such thing as small change. 

For the last phase of the You and the World project, there is the last blog post. Referred to as the Post for Change, the final blog post for everyone involves writing about how we all acted on the issues that we researched. Besides writing about the it, students would shoot surveys out to the rest of the school as part of the research, join groups who also wanted to make a change happen, and collect money to donate to their causes.

In the past and still today, commercials, numerous websites, and even television shows and movies are played to spread the news of the cases of domestic animal abuse locally and internationally. In addition to that, there are shelters and societies to join and/or volunteer at to make sure you put in your work towards helping the prevention of animal abuse, or helping an animal recover and feel loved again. I feel as though commercials and television shows are a good way to get out information to everyone about different forms of animal cruelty, because so many people in the world watch television and come across these ads. Lots of people know about those sad animal commercials, right?

For me, however, I like to create media that makes a change. For one, some graphic design for posters (even virtual posters) catch someone's eye, and they have the option to look at it, because it is not an advertisement that is blocking the person from watching the rest of their show. Pushing out emails about the change towards friends first and have it spread on its own is a way I like to make change happen. First, however, I did some personal service to help animals in recovery. A few years ago, I volunteered with a few people from my school with the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) and helped get ready for opening by caring for cats, cleaning out their cages, sitting in rooms full of cats to play, and, at the end, donating. Sadly, after sending an email to see if that could happen again, I was informed that volunteers had to be 18, and that I should volunteer at the Philadelphia Zoo or at PSPCA, where younger people can help out. 


That is exactly what I will do to make my change. After donating to PAWS, my original organization of choice, I'm going to volunteer at the PSPCA. Having found out so late about the organization, I haven't gotten a chance to go to a volunteer's orientation (to go to after completing an application form). It might be too late to show you all how I worked for the better, but change is always good and better late than never. 


you&theworld orig. content5.29
you&theworld orig. content5.29

My original content for my last blog post is a virtual poster that I created as a bright advertisement against animal cruelty. Featuring a picture I took of my own cat at the top, underneath that, overlapping words written in different fonts and sizes like "alone" and "afraid," words used to describe a pet who is/was being abused and how much that takes from their being. At the bottom is a question in a bolder and bigger font that says: "When will all this change?" I want to put this poster on Tumblr, Facebook, the SLA website, of course, and maybe even get it printed to hang it around the school. The poster doesn't get people to go anywhere in specific, but gets people thinking about animal cruelty and how it's not good at all.

In closing, I'd like to acknowledge my english teacher, Alexa Dunn, for helping me to get involved with fighting animal cruelty with this project, to PAWS for referring me to volunteer at other places to make my change, and also you for reading and commenting on my blog posts. In a bigger perspective, what would you do to stop animal abuse if you saw it? Would you care? It won't stay like this forever. There will be a change.

Bibliography & more here!

Thanks for reading, again!

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