Cruelty to animals is the infliction of suffering or harm upon animals, other than humans, for purposes other than self-defense.
In our mind animal abuse is disturbing and needs to be stopped immediately. Those who abuse animals are sick and heartless. In this blog we will educate you on animal abuse and share with you disturbing stories so you can better understand why this is such an issue. 

Puppy Mills

It can be hard to resist the cute puppies and kittens for sale in pet-store windows. But a closer look into how these stores obtain animals reveals a system in which the high price that consumers pay for “that doggie in the window” pales in comparison with the cost paid by not just the animals who are sold in pet stores but also the animals who are forced to produce litter after litter in order to supply these stores.

That adorable little puppy in the store probably came from a “puppy mill,” a breeding kennel that raises dogs in cramped, crude, filthy conditions. The majority of these facilities are in the Midwest (there are an estimated 1,500 unlicensed kennels in Missouri alone), but they can be found throughout the country, and some dealers even import puppies from other countries.(1,2) Constant confinement and a lack of adequate veterinary care and socialization often result in unhealthy animals who are difficult to socialize. Consequently, many puppies are abandoned within weeks or months of their adoption by frustrated buyers—further exacerbating the tragic companion-animal overpopulation crisis.
Cages, Filth, and Neglect
Puppy-mill kennels can consist of anything from small cages made of wood and wire mesh to tractor-trailer cabs to simple tethers attached to trees. A Pennsylvania breeder confessed that he kept his dogs in cages because it was “the only way to keep a lot of dogs—to keep them penned up.”(3) Female dogs are bred twice a year and are usually killed or abandoned when they are no longer able to produce puppies.(4) Mothers and their litters often suffer from malnutrition, exposure, and a lack of adequate veterinary care.
Puppies are torn away from their mothers and sold to brokers who pack them into crates for transport and resale to pet stores. Puppies who are shipped from mill to broker to pet store can travel hundreds of miles in pickup trucks, tractor-trailers, and airplanes, often without adequate food, water, ventilation, or shelter.
Even if a store claims that it doesn’t buy from puppy mills, there is a good chance that it buys from a broker who does.(5) 
Young puppies who survive the unsanitary conditions at puppy mills and endure the grueling transport to pet stores have rarely received the kind of loving human contact that is necessary for them to become suitable companions. Breeders, brokers, and pet stores ensure maximum profits by not spending money for proper food, housing, or veterinary care.
Conditions don’t improve much when the puppies reach pet stores. Dogs who are kept in small cages without exercise, love, or human contact tend to develop undesirable behavior and may bark excessively or become destructive and unsociable. Unlike many humane societies and animal shelters, pet stores do not screen buyers or inspect potential future homes of the dogs they sell. Poor enforcement of humane laws allows shops to continue selling sick animals, although humane societies and police departments sometimes succeed in closing down stores in which severe abuse is uncovered.   

A Loving Cat- Beaten to Death

On October 10, 1999, a beautiful female cat came willingly to the four boys who stopped on the side of the road and called to her. Her trust was rewarded by unthinkable terror and cruelty - being used as a tug-of-war toy until the boys heard something "pop", having her legs broken, being jumped up and down on like a trampoline. Even when her pitiful battered body was mercifully dead, her suffering was not at an end. The boys then placed her ravaged body under the wheel of their car, braking over her, as they drove off to find other amusement.

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The Noahs Ark Tragedy

During the evening hours of March 7-8 1997, intruders broke into Noah's Ark , a no-kill, non-profit, cat and dog rescue shelter, for 'something fun to do on a weekend night'. At that time, seventy to seventy-five cats were awaiting new homes at the Fairfield, Iowa cat sanctuary, where they lived happily in a pleasant two-story house. The intruders viciously beat more than thirty of the resident cats of this loving sanctuary with baseball bats. A sanctuary where David and Laura Sykes, the founders and managers of this extraordinary shelter, had sacrificed and struggled to provide every comfort, necessity and luxury they could afford or manage to provide. Sixteen cats died of their injuries, another twelve were injured, three of them critically. Three cats were never found, and many of the cats were traumatized and afraid of human contact for many weeks afterward. A seventeenth cat, Thomas, died several months later from injuries sustained in the attack.

Animal Abuse Laws

 

Laws relating to animals can vary widely from state to state. To enable you to find your state's laws quickly and easily, the ASPCA has partnered with the Michigan State University College of Law's Animal Legal & Historical Center to share its online database of animal-related laws, and their penalties, from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This database is updated and expanded on a regular basis. to find out about the laws in Colorado click the link below:
http://www.animallaw.info/statutes/statestatutes/stuscoset.htm

Animal Cruelty Facts

Statistics on the victims and current legislative trends

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  Continuous chaining is illegal in some parts of the country, and cruel everywhere.

Most Common Victims

In media-reported animal cruelty cases, dogs—and pit bulls, in particular—are the most common victims of animal cruelty. Of 1,880 cruelty cases* reported in the media in 2007:

64.5% (1,212) involved dogs

18% (337) involved cats

25% (470) involved other animals 

Reported abuse against pit bulls appears to be on the rise: in 2000–2001, pit bulls were involved in 13% of reported dog-abuse cases; in 2007, they were involved in 25% of reported dog-abuse cases. *some cases involved multiple species

Horses 

According to the American Horse Council, Americans own more than 9 million horses, up from more than 6 million in the mid-1990s. Backyard breeding fueled the boom in pet horses. Of the more than 2 million Americans who own horses, more than one-third have a household income of less than $50,000. [1] 

Neither the total number of horse neglect cases nor the percentage of total animal abuse cases classified as horse neglect has risen since the closure of all U.S. horse slaughter plants.

  
Domestic Violence
Government data scholarly studies of the prevalence of animal cruelty in domestic violence cases reveals a staggering number of animals are victimized by abusive partners each year.
The HSUS estimates that nearly 1 million animals a year are abused or killed in connection with domestic violence.
Statistics:

About 2,168,000 women and men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner in the U.S. every year (U.S. Department of Justice, 2000).

63% of U.S. households own a pet (APPMA, 2006).

71% of domestic violence victims report that their abuser also targeted their animal (Ascione, 1997).

In 2007, 7% of media-reported animal cruelty cases either occured in the context of a domestic dispute or involved a person with a history of domestic violence.

Legislative Trends

47 states currently have felony provisions for animal cruelty. (Those without are Idaho, North Dakota, and South Dakota.)

Before 1986, only four states had felony animal cruelty laws.

42 of the 47 state felony animal cruelty laws were enacted in the last three decades: 13 were enacted between 1986 and 1996, and 28 more were enacted between 1997 and 2011.