Reasons for animal cruelty?

User45701

I read this article, and i know there was a AH thread sometime last year about this but still. Figures are up and this goes against all the reasons we had listed for why people do this. I mean im 22, figures would have been high when i was a nipper but when i was young around 8-14 i thought i never witnised it much, the worst i ever heard off was kids in school who went "cat hunting" Im a cat lover but they didnt hunt them as such or shoot them they would just chace them and the cats would ofcoarse outsmart them, jump away ext.

There reasoning was the same cats would always come back a hour or two later and that meant the cats thought it was fun two. I dint buy into it and never did it myself.

But this is a different game...
http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/mheysnqlgbau/

More animals are becoming the victims of air gun attacks across the UK, the British society for the prevention to cruelty to animals said today.

Last year, the charity investigated 497 shootings in England and Wales, compared with 354 in 2006.

However, a spokeswoman for the organisation said the numbers were likely to be “the tip of the iceberg” as they relate only to their own inquiries.

The RSPCA figures show the most commonly attacked animals last year were cats, with 238 reported incidents, up from 202 the previous year.

“It does indicate that more cats are being targeted,” she said.

“That is particularly worrying and it seems to be people looking for a moving target which is very sad.”

Wild birds were the second most-targeted creatures, with 223 found shot, but she said larger wild mammals and dogs were also killed or injured by air guns.

The worst months for animal shootings were during the summer, the spokeswoman said. Last year’s figures show 130 attacks in the months of June and July alone.

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“This really is the tip of the iceberg, there are likely to be many more cases that go unreported. The chief victims tend to be wildlife and cats and they might crawl away and die.”

She added that there seemed to be a trend of more serious wounds caused by the air weapons.

“One of our vets has noticed the severity of the injuries has increased over the years,” she said.

“He is now seeing these pellets shattering the femur of a cat, animals having to have limbs amputated and deaths.”

The charity is advising parents that air guns are illegal for under 18s and that children using them should be supervised at all times.

“In an ideal world we would like to see licensing of air guns, we do have legislation that needs to be enforced,” she said.

“It is hard to say why people do it. How do you explain mindless cruelty? People apparently want the amusement of a moving target to shoot at and a live one.

“But why they should want to do that, I really can’t say.”

The RSPCA is launching a campaign in the north of the UK, where 148 incidents were investigated, to raise awareness of the issue.

They highlighted several specific incidents across the region last year including six seagulls shot in Hartlepool in July, a beach donkey attacked in Scarborough in October and a puppy shot five times and kicked in the head in Hull in March.

So why is this on the rise? i dont think its because people are being desentisesed (damm no spell check on this crappy ie). so what is causing a rise in violence. Could it have something to do with the increased number of people being born lacking certin emotions? i dont think its that either because even lacking emotions you still have intellegence, the abality to see right from wrong. Yet for some reason there does seem to be a increae in mankinds preditory instincts in recent years, a society stagnating can cause violence people v people to increase because of unrest and such but i honnestly dont know why something like animal cruelty in on the rise.

If anything is disputes the whole violent video games because if kids/teens/people did get there "fill" from games violence in the world would be decreasing.

i just dont know what makes people see the fun in it. Where the challange? people will often say there is no challange if its not hard or fun. Ive never tried hunting a animal but to me they dont have the intellegence to know that whats pointed at them is a weapon. Seems to me it would be more fun, more sporting and more of a challange to hunt the people who do this to animals? (Not trying to advocate violence Terry , im not trying to round up a boards hunting possie. Just get a but of a discussion going.)

For example: Does anyone know how many years a person under 18 will get for shooting and killing and or wounding a animal?

Red Hand

Oooooh, I've a feeling that the hunting crowd will descend on this thread like flies to ****.

It says it right there in the article there, OP. You buy your grand big airgun and try and shoot moving targets for no other reason than enjoyment.

togster

Jeremiah 16:1 wrote: »

Oooooh, I've a feeling that the hunting crowd will descend on this thread like flies to ****.

Buzz

Susannahmia

User45701 wrote: »

Could it have something to do with the increased number of people being born lacking certin emotions?

Hmm?

Red Hand

Double post

Red Hand

Think it may be down to people being born into families that have more money tbh.

Sadism is usually a little more hands on with pyschopaths-they usually strangle/beat their animals rather than take the "cleaner" option of taking an animal out with a firearm.

whiskeyman

I blame scumbags, and Romas...






Seriously though, isn't it no surprise that animals are getting just as little respect as some people show their fellow humans?
More for humanities me thinks...

nmk

I disagree that people get their "fill" of gore/violence from violent video games and agree that they aid to desensitise certain people who watch them. (Compare it to how risque music videos and pop culture have gotten and how teens - the target audience - are carrying on.) I think that some people are more susceptible than others to being desensitised in this manner but that those who do abuse animals or bully younger people do it for the feeling of power and the bar has been raised by seeing x character do this to y's mutilated remains. I'm referring to kids here, adults and older teens who carry on this way are probably similarly affected but more culpable as they should be able to rationalise it as unnecessary cruelty and a f*cked up way of getting kicks.

I found when I was growing up that it was (in my experience) boys from a non-rural background that would torment animals, kids from farms or who visited them/had pets were less likely to do it. Even then, it would mainly have been like your friends chasing cats and very occasionally escalated into worse abuse. (F*ckers throwing animals into bonfires etc :mad:). I don't know have things changed with regards to violence and attitudes to violent acts, maybe we're more aware of/shocked by violent acts now?

the dee

I don't think the hunters should have a problem with this question as we're talking about animal cruelty - wounding, torturing and tormenting animals. Not hunting - which usually involves a swifter death and has more of a purpose behind it. (not that I'm for hunting - I just see it's different to animal cruelty)

Why is it on the rise? There are probably lots of reasons - rich / poor gap, not enough education, too much free time and there are always sadistic people who get a kick out of these things...

Overheal

Prices at the butchers a ridonculous. I hunt my own duck now.

User45701

the dee wrote: »

Why is it on the rise? There are probably lots of reasons - rich / poor gap, not enough education, too much free time and there are always sadistic people who get a kick out of these things...

Sorry but it cant be education because the education has improved in recent years while anaimal attacks have increased and the population has not skyrocketed so much that it would account for more uneducated people despite a increase in educational levels.

the dee

User45701 wrote: »

Sorry but it cant be education because the education has improved in recent years while anaimal attacks have increased and the population has not skyrocketed so much that it would account for more uneducated people despite a increase in educational levels.

I meant education about animals. A lot of children who'd never have had much interaction with animals wouldn't empahise with their suffering and wouldn't see them as living, feeling creatures.

Teaching children about pet care and animal welfare and the like would help I think.

Jigsaw

One reason for animal cruelty would be self defence, like killing a wasp.

Trojan911

Airguns are easily available in the UK and are cheap to buy & you do not need a licence for your normal standard airgun/rifle. The pellets are lead so will cause lead poisoning to add to the pain of being shot.

Unsupervised, low life, sub human gurriers to sum it up in one sentence.

Degsy

Gin Traps
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/andyspatch/gintrap/trapdiagram1.gif&imgrefurl=http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/andyspatch/gintraps.htm&h=326&w=600&sz=19&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=OlI1Hwl8-xb8JM:&tbnh=73&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgin%2Btrap%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

Are the best way to deal with cats.

AckwelFoley

Cat meat tastes like duck

yummm

Hate when the fur gets caught in yer teeth.

*spit*

Reku

the dee wrote: »

I meant education about animals. A lot of children who'd never have had much interaction with animals wouldn't empahise with their suffering and wouldn't see them as living, feeling creatures.

Teaching children about pet care and animal welfare and the like would help I think.

Unfortunately people go overboard with their "we're human, we are the supreme creature, all others are inferior" beliefs at times, it was only about a year ago that they decided to accept that fish could in fact feel pain. Because they view the animals as inferior it makes it seem more ok to do horrible things to them.

Degsy

farohar wrote: »

Unfortunately people go overboard with their "we're human, we are the supreme creature, all others are inferior" beliefs at times, it was only about a year ago that they decided to accept that fish could in fact feel pain. Because they view the animals as inferior it makes it seem more ok to do horrible things to them.

Yum.Fish.

togster

Catfish... not so tasty

Vegeta

Maybe because farming and rural living are becoming a thing of the past. We are becoming further and further removed from living and working with animals.

Degsy

Some people get a kick out of tormenting other people,some people like starting fires and some people get thier jollies out of torturing animals.The real reason for this is one of dominance over a percieved weaker foe,for example kids will torture worms or cats but not crocodiles or poisonous snakes.Nor will a weak kid pick on a stronger kid to bully them.

Reku

Degsy wrote: »

Some people get a kick out of tormenting other people,some people like starting fires and some people get thier jollies out of torturing animals.The real reason for this is one of dominance over a percieved weaker foe,for example kids will torture worms or cats but not crocodiles or poisonous snakes.Nor will a weak kid pick on a stronger kid to bully them.

That actually sounds like a serious, intelligent post....
:eek:Who are you and what have you done with the real Degsy!?!?!?

Dr_Teeth

I think it's mostly because there are so many young people growing up in the UK having ****ty lives surrounded by concrete and possessions. They have no idea about what nature or life is all about.

Having said that, I wonder about the outrage in the OP's article. There are plenty of "wild birds" that are vermin and need to have their numbers controlled for the sake of other species, the same could be said for feral cats. I wonder if they are misrepresenting the facts in this case..

Red Hand

Dr_Teeth wrote: »

I think it's mostly because there are so many young people growing up in the UK having ****ty lives surrounded by concrete and possessions. They have no idea about what nature or life is all about.

Having said that, I wonder about the outrage in the OP's article. There are plenty of "wild birds" that are vermin and need to have their numbers controlled for the sake of other species, the same could be said for feral cats. I wonder if they are misrepresenting the facts in this case..

There's a big difference between torturing something/killing something for enjoyment and killing something because they're numbers are severely effecting other animal populations.