As hopeful as the future appears for animals, we’re still galaxies away from a humane world. Even the most progressive governments let a lot of animal suffering go ignored.
NINA JACKEL: ‘People are growing less tolerant to violence against animals, and lawmakers are responding. But more needs to be done… Public perception of animal cruelty, backed by mounting scientific evidence of the similarities between human and nonhuman animals, is helping to change hearts, minds and laws.
At the 18th meeting of the global treaty of cross-border wildlife trade on August 30, a summit of 182 countries and the European Union, 130 animal species received protections for the first time. A landmark takeaway from the summit was approval of a near-complete ban on capturing African elephants and sending them to zoos in other countries.
“Like us, elephants feel joy when reunited with family and grief when brutally separated,” said Joyce Poole, an elephant behavior expert at National Geographic Explorer. “Like us, they need friends and space to thrive. The physical and psychological harm caused to individual elephants by their traumatic capture and their impoverished lives in captivity is well-documented.”
In the United States, a nationwide, bipartisan bill was reintroduced this year to make animal cruelty and bestiality a federal felony. If passed, the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act (PACT Act) would mark the first national law in the U.S. criminalizing animal torture… The effect is global.
In the United Kingdom, Environmental Secretary Michael Gove introduced The Welfare Animal (Sentencing) Bill to Parliament this year, which would increase the maximum prison sentence for animal abusers from six months to five years — a ten-fold increase and one of the strictest laws of its kind in Europe. These laws further enforce the policies enacted in the 2011 Animal Welfare Act, recognizing all vertebrates as sentient beings.
Other European countries like Luxembourg, Norway, the Czech Republic, Belgium and Ireland, to name a few, are following suit to strengthen animal protections. All passed fur farming bans between 2017 and 2019. Countries in Asia are making strides, too, with more citizens sharing their homes with dogs and cats… As hopeful as the future appears for animals, we’re still galaxies away from a humane world. Even the most progressive governments let a lot of animal suffering go ignored…
When industries profit from animal exploitation, cruelty becomes especially hard to stop. On modern farms, for example, billions of animals suffer in crushingly tight spaces, wading in their own urine and feces and enduring painful procedures like de-beaking for chickens and castration with no pain relief for male pigs. Anti-cruelty laws will make exceptions for livestock, expressly stating their exclusion in the bills’ language…
As with any social movement, true justice for animals will not happen swiftly. We’re still struggling to live compassionately with other humans, let alone creatures of other species. But just as we will evolve past racism, sexism, ageism and religious persecution, we will evolve past barbarism toward animals, too. The animals need your voice in that fight’. SOURCE…
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