YATW Blog #2: Animal Cruelty Must End!

 Hello, my name is Kara Heenan. If you don’t remember, my first blog was about animal cruelty. I went deep into facts and statistics on animal cruelty, included some pictures, and shared some of my thoughts on it. In this blog, I will be basically describing what I have done in terms of research since then.

 I did some research on the internet and found some new great news on animal cruelty laws! The representative of Georgia is trying to create a new version of their animal cruelty law so it will be easier to go after starvation and other neglect cases. The state representative is really pushing it since it not only cleans up and clarifies the existing law, it also expands it so that torturing an animal, even if that animal does not die, is considered a felony.

 A new state law helped push Pennsylvania in rankings from 17 to 12 for having the best animal protection laws in the country. The new law, known as Cost of Care of Seized Animals Act, allows a shelter to make a motion to require a defendant to pay for the cost of boarding pets before trial. It really helps these shelters with the cost of taking care of the animals which is amazing!

 On the side, I also did my own original research. I decided to do field observation, which is finding a place where a lot of your problem goes on and observing it and taking notes. I chose a place in my neighborhood which had a lot of stray cats and a neglected dog. When I went, I talked to a lady that lived there and she gave me details of what goes on there. I observed two cats, one Smokey, who was very sweet, and the other, who was very shy, doesn't have a name.

                     Shy, distant cat.                              Very welcoming cat named Smokey.

There was also a dog there in it’s yard named Akita. The lady told me that this dog is always in her yard and is barely ever gets let in her house. She was very sweet and seemed very happy to see me.

I could see the sadness in her eyes.

 Observing these animals was very sad. The cats suffer from abandonment and the dog suffers from neglect. Both are forms of animal abuse. These animals deserve loving homes and should not be living outside. I hope this blog really made you aware of the suffering animals go through. In my next blog, I should be including details about My Agent of Change, where I will be finally getting to help these animals. Stay tuned!