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After watching Animal Planet's Animal Precinct, and many Animal Cops shows, I'm not surprised anymore by how many cruel people there are in this world. All those poor animals and the way they still manage to find homes after all of what's happened to them.

Like the dog who had a collar around its neck for so long that it was embedded in its skin with infection sprouting all over it. The poor thing's head was also swollen from fluid backed up from gonig through the neck. Everytime it yelped I swear I wanted to cry, and my mom about had a fit at the site of it.

Then there was the people who left a pregnant dog in an abandoned house they moved from. She had her puppies and although she was skinny as a rail, she made sure her pups were still warm and well-nourished (this is in the dead of winter too).

Or the many horse cases I've seen.. Like the pregnant malnourished horse that had every rib and joint available to see but her belly was more swollen than you can imagine. I was amazed she was going to give birth at all in that condition. And living in Virginia, many people have or own horses, so I've seen my fair share of skinny, under-fed horses roaming around. I've called the Animal Shelter/SPCA to report it and they just redirected me to the cops. -.- Like they can't handle it themselves or something. That disgusted me beyond belief.

Here's a link to Animal Precint updates on mild to horrible animal cruelty cases that have improved for the better so far.

Yep, that's the one. I've seen probably three cases of the collar-in-the-neck scenario on those shows, but THAT one took the cake. It definitely didn't happen within a week or two, that was the work of years. How can someone have the courage to look outside at a dog with a swollen head? Are they that cheap to not afford a simple 5-10 dollar collar? The nerve of some folks.

Not everyone deserves a pet.

I'm happy to say that I've never witnessed any type of animal cruelty personally because if I did, I would be in prison right now on murder charges. I think that people who abuse animals should have the exact same thing done to them... regardless of their age. For example, if someone suffocated an animal then the same thing should be done to them. That would be their just reward.

I hate animal cruelty. I haven't seen alot of it really. But yes, I have seen a few cased of it. Abuse, horrible living conditions, etc. *Sigh* I despise it all. It's one of the reasons i went veggie : )

A relative of mine, whom I shall keep anonymous, used to throw my miniature poodle when he got angry at her (this was when I was a child). I mean literally throw her several feet in the air across the room, onto the lawn, or onto the concrete patio outside. It got me so upset that I really can't describe it. When he would get mad at our larger dogs, he dragged them wherever he wanted them to go by picking their collars up so their front legs were off the ground, then pulling them. gonk Some of the ways he treated animals, I'll just never forgive him for. I love him, because he's a close relative of mine and does care about me, but I hope to God he never gets another animal of his own. He doesn't have any now, that I'm aware of, and I think he considers them too much of an inconvenience to bother having one around. Guess that's a good thing for them.

When our horse was bought, his old owner really didn't care if he was ridden to death. He has lesions in the bone of one of his legs, which basically gives him pretty bad arthritis. He was being sold as a beginner's competition jumping horse. The vet told us that jumping or any of that serious riding was too bad for his legs. If he kept competing, that leg would eventually cave in (it might anyway later on in life, it's just that detrimental), and that would be the end of him. He was really only worth about 1/8-1/4 of his price, but the lady would only lower it by 1/8. According to her, if we didn't buy him, someone else would without doing the X-rays. They would pay full price to compete him.

The little strawberry roan pony Nick was supposedly abused by his past owner - probably a woman. He won't let anyone wihtin about five feet of him. If the barn owner and her son want to work with him or do anything for him, it takes about fifteen minutes of chasing just to catch him. Loud noises or sudden movements send him into a mindless panic.


But the worse cases of neglect and abuse I've ever seen? Starvation and abandonment.

The one mustang, Cheyenne, at our barn was brought in so skinny that you could see all of her ribs, the notches of her spine, and her hipbones. She had been bought jointly by a woman and her boyfriend over a year before. When they split up, the man wouldn't let the woman onto his property to see Cheyenne. A year and a half later, the man called the woman out of the blue and basically told her, "Get this horse off of my property." She found the little mare in that condition. Cheyenne's first several months were concerned solely with food. She constantly searched her stall for it, and she wouldn't even look up at anyone unless they were holding hay. Thankfully, the woman is a wonderful and kind owner. Cheyenne has made a full recovery, and she is completely healthy, very intelligent and curious, and always very sweet and well-behaved. If someone's in her pasture, she follows the person like a dog, and she's even arched her neck and trotted in front of me before as if insisting she be notified where I was going.

There are four more horses at the barn that were also originally purchased severely underweight, and three others have just plain been abandoned...the owners stopped visiting and stopped paying for them. This includes a sweet old bay, an adorable, young chestnut, and an absolutely stunning palomino who looks like he should be the cover of a calendar.

There were two kittens abandoned on a road near the barn last fall, and our barn's owner tried to catch them with live traps. Both were hit by cars before she could. People often dump kittens and other cats at barns or on country roads; I don't know why.

When I was in late elementary school/junior high, one of our neighbors had a VERY sweet dog named Jake who they'd found as a puppy, in a bag, on the curb, in the rain. He was a beautiful and wonderful dog, and i don't understand that at all. I can't ever remember him doing anything really wrong.


Okay, that's all I can think of for now. Enough ranting.