Michael Arthur Newdow hasresearched this and submitted a paper on just these kinds of atrocities.

As long as people believe in absurdities, they will continue to commit atrocities -Voltaire 

The human history is full violence and atrocities. Some scholars have suggested that aggression should be regarded as a basic instinct. Freud considered aggression as a dynamic factor in mental life. Psychologist Eric Fromm in his most well known work the Anatomy of Human Destructiveness expresses that the violence of the dominant culture is not biological in its origin. The aggression and destructiveness are approached, as multi-dimensional phenomenon .These may be a tragic facet of the human condition. During the past, several hundred years’ mass atrocities were committed against humanity.  Most of these atrocities were committed by the technologically advanced nations. The victims suffered and the perpetrators went unnoticed. The history teaches us a lesson. If the humans unable to learn from their past mistakes the violence and atrocities will affect the modern civilization repeatedly.

  Atrocities have usually involved torture, maiming, or killing of civilians and noncombatants; destruction of nonmilitary targets; maltreatment and killing of wounded and prisoners of war; and use of weapons to cause superfluous damage or injury.

 Genocide

Genocide is the organized killing of a people for the express purpose of putting an end to their collective existence. Genocide requires central planning and a machinery to implement it. The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide describes genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” This definition applies in the case of the atrocities committed against humanity by various superpowers in the past. 

Atrocities Committed by the Spanish Invaders in South America

Francisco Pizarro went for the conquest of Peru -South America in 1524, with 80 men and 40 horses. Pizarro was not a literate man but he was a rustles soldier driven by insatiable desire to find gold. Spanish conquerors led by Francisco Pizarro wiped-out a civilization. The Spanish invaders killed the natives, looted their gold. The invaders even used biological mode of attacks introducing smallpox and measles to the indigenous people killing masses. By 1650 AD many native people had died, empty houses stood in empty villages. The flourished self-sufficient civilization of South America came to nonexistent. It was a terrifying atrocity committed by the Spanish invaders in South America.

 The cruel and Iron Fist of the Portuguese Invaders

As a colonial super power, Portuguese had a fear inducing reputation. The Portuguese unleashed many cruelties against the people of Asia, Africa and South America. They committed a number of atrocities in Ceylon. They vandalized the religious buildings and looted the wealth. They tortured the natives and forced them to renounce their traditional religion. The General Azavedu   is still remembered as a symbol of a bloodthirsty villain who ordered the Portuguese Army to launched heavy cruelty against the people. They killed infants, raped women and burnt books. The people were subjected to torture, massacre, and starvation.

 Atrocities committed by the British Army

The British Army committed a number of atrocities in Africa, India, and Sri Lanka. The Sepoy rebellion in 1857 which was an outcry against the repression was crushed in a ruthless manner. On the 13 April 1919 General Reginald Edward Harry Dyer of the British Army ordered his men to open fire at an unarmed group of people which mostly consisted of women and children at Amritsar which later came to known as Jallianvala Baga massacre. Over 300 killed and thousands wounded. Although children were among the victims no action was taken against the General Dyer by the British Army.

 A few years after the Kandyan Convention in 1818 natives stood against the British colonial rulers. Martial Law was declared and the revolt was suppressed in a vigorous manner. Major MacDonald of the British Army set fire to the houses, burnt the grain and killed the cattle as an act of retaliation. Many collaborators were shot and some were exiled. Even the family members were taken prisoners. Keppetipola Disawe- the prominent leader of the Uva rebellion of 1918 was executed and his family was deported. Keppetipola Disawe ’s  son died under the captivity.

 The British Army used a cruel force to defeat the 1848 revolt led by Gongalegoda Bada and Puran Appu . Inhuman and sadistic punishments were inflicted on the villagers and the Army destroyed the fertile social fabric. Many people became the victims of hostile actions and starvation.

 Dark Face of America

The new white settlers in America considered the native tribal people as savages and they were subjected to various atrocities. Their lands were seized and the culture was destroyed. Although the Red Indians were portrayed as brutal uncivilized community even in the Hollywood movies , they had a developed and distinctive livelihood, which connected with nature. They were nature-loving people and helped to preserve the environment for thousand years.

 The Native American chief Seattle expressed his surprise when the US President Franklin Pierce asked him to sell the land. In return. Seattle wrote “how can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man.

 Slavery in the United States had its origins with the first English Colonization of North America in 1607. Slavery lasted in the US until 1865. The slaves treated like material property rather than humans. They had to work in plantations under rough conditions. In the slave market men were separated from their wives, and frequently children were taken from their mothers. The slaves were often punished for slightest mistakes and these punishments consisted of wiping, clubbing, and sometimes chopping off body parts.

 The Americans have also been criticized for the atrocities committed in Vietnam and Iraq. In Vietnam the US forces were accused of using napalm and crop destruction as well as killing of killing of unarmed civilians, mostly women and children, at the village of My Lai in 1968.

  In 2003 Human Rights Watch report   said that civilian deaths in Iraq “reveal a pattern by U.S. forces of over-aggressive tactics, indiscriminate shooting in residential areas and a quick reliance on lethal forces. Some informed estimates place Iraqi civilian causalities at over 600,000.

 Italian Crimes in Africa 

In October 1911, during the Italo – Turkish War, Italian forces invaded North African territories (modern day Libya) slaughtering a large number of tribal men women and children.  Mussolini’s soldiers committed massive atrocities in Libya and Ethiopia before and during the Second World War.  They used tanks and airplanes and often poisonous mustard gas against the natives. Italian Fascists built concentration cams before the Nazi Holocaust in Colonial Libya during 1929 – 1933. In these concentration camps men were tortured and killed, women were raped, children were staved to death. The Libyan tribal leader Omar Mukhtar stood against the invaders and launched a 20 year long guerrilla war using primitive weaponry against the well equipped Italian Army. His freedom struggle came to an end in 1931. He was wounded in a battle, captured and then executed by the Italian Army.    

 The Italian Fascists conducted a systematic ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories in North Africa.  The Italian fascist invasion in 1935 and subsequent occupation of Ethiopia were accompanied by numerous atrocities. The Italian forces used mustard gas against the civil targets, bombed hospitals and villages killing tens of thousands of people.  

 French in Algeria and Indochina

The French occupied Algeria for 132 years and worst atrocities were committed between 1830 and 1962. In 1840 Thomas Bugeaud, the Governor General of Algeria launched an attack on Algerian civilians killing and deporting masses. According to some reports hundreds of people were burned alive or asphyxiated in caves where they sought refuge from the advancing French troops. The French troops set fire to Algerian villages killing civilians and raping women. They destroyed property, food, and animal stocks which led to starvation among the indigenous population.   During France’s occupation of Algeria a  large numbers of Algerians were forced into “tent cities” and concentration camps.  . It has been estimated that from 1830 to 1900, between 15 and 25% of the Algerian population died in such camps.

 In 1957 the International Red Cross disclosed the widespread use of torture by the French army and police against thousands of Algerians The torture techniques used by the French included electricity applied to the most sensitive parts of the body, near drowning in water, sodomy with glass and wood objects, hanging by the feet and hands, and burning with cigarettes. (Maran, Rita (1989). Torture: The Role of Ideology in the French-Algerian War. New York: Praeger). The most outrages act was the Massacres of May 1945 in which 45,000 Algerians were killed within a few days by the French occupied forces.

 French Indo-China comprised the French protectorates of Cambodia, Laos, Annam, Tongkin, and the French colony of Cochin-China.  In May 1945 1400 former French POWs released by the British from Japanese internment camps in South Vietnam entered Saigon and went on a deadly rampage attacking civilians even killing innocent children.  French forces violated the laws or customs of war in the Indochina conflict which lasted from 1946 – 1954.  The French Foreign Legions last stand in Indo China in 1950 and they were defeated in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu .

 The Horrific Face of the Japanese Imperialism

During the period of Japanese Imperialism a large number of atrocities committed in the occupied Asian countries. The Japanese Imperial Army conducted crimes against enemy civilians and enemy combatants. In the ill famous Nanking Massacre in 1937 hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians were murdered and 20,000–80,000 women were raped by the Japanese soldiers. The Imperial Army abducted young women from China and Korea to serve as comfort women or sex slaves. An estimated one hundred thousand to four hundred thousand female sex slaves were forced to deliver sexual services to Japanese soldiers during the World War 2.

 Between 1937 and 1945, the Japanese military murdered from nearly 3,000,000 to over 10,000,000 people, most likely 6,000,000 Chinese, Indonesians, Koreans, Filipinos, and Indochinese, among others, including Western prisoners of war. (Professor R.J Mummel the Faculty of Political Science – University of Hawaii).

 The Gloomy History of Australia

The Europeans, who established the new settlements in Australia, did not encounter any major resistance from the native population. The aboriginals sometimes helped the white settlers providing food when they faced scarcities. The Aboriginals were no match for the highly armed European settlers. Gradually the natives were attacked and driven to the desert land. In the ill famous Myall Creek massacre in 1830 even the aboriginal children were murdered.

 From 1869 to the late 1960s (in some parts until 1970) the Australian governments removed part-Aboriginal children from their mothers, parents, families and communities, often by force. . Children were placed with institutions and from the 1950s began also being placed with white families. Aboriginal children were expected to become labourers or servants, Aboriginal girls in particular were sent to homes established by the Board to be trained in domestic service. These victims later came to know as the Stolen Generation. According to Dr Jane McKendrick Psychiatrist at the Melbourne University stated that ‘a large number of people from the Stolen Generations were either psychologically, physically or sexually abused while in care.

 Atrocities committed by the German Army during the WW2

Under the Hitler’s regime, NAZI Germany exterminated over 6 million Jews in concentration camps. The German SS committed serious crimes in the occupied territory. Torture, deportation, execution often used against Jews, Polish, Russian and Gipsy people. Between 1939 and 1945, the SS assisted by collaborationist governments and recruits from occupied countries, systematically killed somewhere between 11 and 14 million people. Many innocent people were starved to death. The Holocaust remains as a dark patch in the human history.

 Israelites against Palestine

Israel was condemned by the UN for launching systematic attacks against Palestine civilians. The resent attacks in Gaza killing of civilians and destruction of thousands of homes could be described as one of the dreadful atrocities committed by the Israel Army.   According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 1,434 Palestinians were killed during the Israeli offensive, 960 of them civilians, among them 288 children. Israeli actions in Gaza created a humanitarian as well as human dignity crisis. Following massive destruction of livelihoods and the deterioration of infrastructure 80 % of Gaza population now live in humanitarian assistance. 

 Ending Atrocities

Crimes against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Explanatory Memorandum, “are particularly odious offences in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity   or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings. They are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part either of a government policy   (although the perpetrators need not identify themselves with this policy) or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government or a de facto authority. Murder; extermination; torture; rape and political, racial, or religious persecution and other inhumane acts reach the threshold of crimes against humanity only if they are part of a widespread or systematic practice. Isolated inhumane acts of this nature may constitute grave infringements of human rights, or depending on the circumstances war crimes   but may fall short of falling into the category of crimes under discussion.

 Gareth Evans, President, International Crisis Group, to Crimes Against Humanity Initiative expresses the views as follows

 When it comes to international relations, and in particular the great issues of war and peace, violence, and catastrophic human rights violations with which we are concerned here, there is a well-established view that anyone who approaches things in this kind of generally optimistic frame of mind must be incorrigibly naïve, if not outright demented.  Certainly in the case of genocide and atrocity crimes—either directly committed by a government against its own people, or allowed to happen by a government unable or unwilling to stop it—it is hard for even the incorrigibly naïve to remain optimistic. In this world we inhabit—full of cynicism, double standards, crude assertions of national interest, high-level real-politic, and low-level maneuvering for political advantage.

 There are no Cruel Nations

Every nation has committed some sort of atrocity against one another. In the broad sense all were perpetrators as well as the victims. There are no cruel or atrocious nations as such. Only individuals with their prejudices can lead the people to commit atrocities. The people ought to be conscious and vigilant about such dark forces.

 The words of the Indian Philosopher J. Krishnamurti ( in Freedom from the Known, pp.51-52 )  gives  broader understanding how the seeds of violence  and prejudices germinate in the human mind.

 When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.

 Michael Arthur Newdow on Atrocities and Genocide

Michael Arthur Newdow expresses his views on Atrocities and Genocide as follows…..

 People don’t simply wake up one day and commit genocide. They start by setting themselves apart from others, diminishing the stature of those adhering to dissenting beliefs in small, insidious steps. They begin by saying, ‘We’re the righteous, and we’ll tolerate those others.’ And as the toleration diminishes over time, the inevitable harms are overlooked. It is for that reason that James Madison wisely wrote that ‘it is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties’.” 

This is the history of our human race,and many of these horrific things were carried out in the name of God?But I seriously doubt that God told these people to kill or torture anyone(not the God I know anyhow).

But then we see the pain we have inflicted on God’s creatures,(no I’m not talking about just the ones we eat,I see nothing wrong with hunting to feed your family ,but,yes,I see a problem with hunting for sport.Most hunters are out their in there tree stands,and blinds to feed their families and to promote the  continued health of the species they are hunting ,yes I know over-hunting has annihilated many species, but if  we don’t hunt we risk a population explosion,and the deterioration of the food chain,so hunt or don’t it’s your choice as a human.)But I am speaking of animal cruelty and animal testing.1st off what is animal cruelty?Wikipedia describes animal cruelty as…

Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is the infliction of suffering or harm upon non-human animals, for purposes other than self-defense. More narrowly, it can be harm for specific gain, such as killing animals for food or for their fur, although opinions differ with respect to the method of slaughter. Diverging viewpoints are held by jurisdictions throughout the world.

Broadly speaking, there are two approaches to the issue. The animal welfare position holds that there is nothing inherently wrong with using animals for human purposes, such as food, clothing, entertainment, and research, but that it should be done in a humane way that minimizes unnecessary pain and suffering. Animal rights theorists criticize this position, arguing that the words “unnecessary” and “humane” are subject to widely differing interpretations, and that the only way to ensure protection for animals is to end their status as property, and to ensure that they are never used as commodities. Laws concerning animal cruelty are designed to prevent needless cruelty to animals, rather than killing for other aims such as food, or they concern species not eaten as food in the country involved, such as those regarded as pets.

I totally agree with this definition and ask you to think about this when you see an abandoned animal on the side of the road,starving,and infested with parasites.Is it better this way sometimes or do we contact a person or shelter to collect the animal to save it’s life.Also I would encourage each of you reading this to promote and donate to no-kill shelters.

Research Versus Animal Rights

Clamps lock the rabbit’s head into place. Clips keep the eyelids open. A researcher releases a drop of oven cleaner into unblinking eyes, then records what happens to the eye tissue over a period of time. The substance could cause the animal’s eyelids to swell. The eyes may bleed. Maybe the rabbit goes blind. Maybe it snaps its neck trying to escape. The end result will be a product label that warns people to avoid eye contact with this oven cleaner.

Here’s another scenario. A woman who has suffered emotionally her whole life is finally diagnosed with manic depression. She finds, to her amazement, that taking the drug lithium ends her regular descents into depression. She can now enjoy life and function at a much higher level.

This woman may not necessarily agree with animal testing, but she cannot help but feel grateful for the animal experiments on guinea pigs that led researchers to discover lithium’s soothing quality.

This woman may not necessarily agree with animal testing, but she cannot help but feel grateful for the animal experiments on guinea pigs that led researchers to discover lithium’s soothing quality.

The sad thing is I’ve been against animal research since grade school when our biology teacher insisted we dissect frogs to learn more about (human biology?)I asked if it would be different if we dissected a human? my teacher was appalled that I would even think such a thing,I was then promptly taken to the principals office given an F on the project and 3 days detention.I am a member of both forms of P.E.T.A. people for the ethical treatment of animals and people eating tasty animals,God gave us dominion over the animals to make sure that they flourished but also to ensure that man wouldn’t go hungry and be over run by said animals,I firmly believe if you can not eat it don’t kill it for it’s fur or antlers or any other part of the animal.With all our technology can we not find a better way to test our products than on harmless,innocent, little animals?

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Comments Animal Testing

Ninety-four percent of animal testing is done to determine the safety of cosmetics and household products leaving only 6% for medical research! Cosmetic testing is banned in Belgium, Netherlands and the U.K.. Europe has been phasing out all products related to animal testing since 2002 and they plan to completely ban all products by 2009. This is a big step in right direction for millions of animals who were helplessly killed during tests for cosmetics and household products. Unfortunately the U.S. is still home to many companies who continue to legally perform horrible test on animals even though the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission doesn’t require animal testing for cosmetics or household products!

Most of the animals that are used in testing are bred just for testing, but many others come from the pound. Mice, rabbits, dogs, guinea pigs, cats and monkey’s are the most commonly used animals for tests. It has been proven that there is already enough existing safety data, as well as in vitro (test tube) alternatives to make animal testing for cosmetics and household products even more unnecessary and unethical. By just listing the names of the tests I will be able to give you a better idea of what these poor animals go through. Whole Body, Short-term Toxicity, Skin Penetration, Skin Irritancy, Eye irritancy, Skin Sensitization, Phototoxicity & Photosensitisation, Mutagenicity, Carcinogenicity, Reproductive Toxicity, Teratogenicity and Finished Product Testing are all common tests performed on animals.

The LD50 test short for lethal dose, is one of the worst tests that was developed back in 1927 and is still in use today. Groups of animals are dosed with different amounts of a test substance in order to determine the dose which kills half of the animals! Animals are often force-fed the substance. The LD50 test is known to use huge, unrealistic doses that are completely unrelated to possible exposure levels. There are now other tests available that use less animals and lower doses, yet this old, discredited LD50 test continues. During another common test, the Draize eye-and skin-irritation test, rabbits are immobilized in full-body restraints while a substance is dripped or smeared into their eyes or onto their shaved skin. Rabbits often scream in pain and many break their necks trying to get free. The Draize test has been proven in studies to “grossly over predicted the effects that could be seen in the human eye, and does not reflect the eye irritation hazard for man”. The human four-hour patch skin test has proved to provide chemical skin-irritation data that are “inherently superior to that given by a surrogate model, such as the rabbit.”

With so much going on in the world and our lives, I know it easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless. But by reading this article you have proved that you do care. I know it is hard and horrible to even think of what is happening behind closed doors. But right now there are millions of animals who are caged, tortured, and can’t speak for themselves. You can make progress and reach out to help them by taking just a second to sign this online petition here. By not purchasing products from companies that continue to test on animals you are also sending the message that it is not right.

More about Animal Testing:

• Should animal testing be banned?
• UK government taken to court over animal testing
• Modifying Creatures in the Name of Science
• Testing Sensitivity Without Skin

Please think of these questions our moral compass isn’t always pointing to true north these days.Now an animal only kills to(a) Protect it’s self or family.(b)Because it needs to eat or feed it’s family.(c)To protect it’s teritory.Those are the only reasons animals kill yet we do it for alot of really stupid reasons so who is more humane?Well you tell me.

The association of African Americans and apes lead to grave consequences in justification for violence by police officers. One study by Goff and colleagues show that when primed with an ape imagery, people give much higher tolerance for violence against black suspects than if there were no priming. However, the same effect does not apply when suspects are white. This is an example of the de-humanization effect of the ape association. Likewise, among all criminals who are eligible for death sentences, black convicts are perceived as much more animalistic than their white counterparts. This is evident in the use of animal-like words to describe the convicts, such as “savage” or “predator”. In addition, black convicts who were given the death sentences receive about twice as many animal-based description than those who were given life sentences. This suggests that the association of blacks and apes (or animals in general) may contribute to the justification of harsher sentences for African Americans. In social context, it appears that people do not hold any of these explicit association of prejudice against black people. Rather, these associations are implicitly and subconsciously processed. When people are reading through descriptions of crime, they are not only taking in objective information, but also more subjective information like the severity or nature of the crime as prompted by the descriptive words. This proves to be a great obstacle in eliminating prejudice: how can we address the issue if we aren’t even aware that we have it?

Eberhardt, J. L. (2010). Enduring Racial Associations: African Americans, Crime, and Animal Imagery. In H. R. Markus & P. Moya (Eds.), Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century (pp. 439-456). New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company Inc.

“…Guys, there is one horrible place in Khimki-2, Moscow, Russia. It is a shelter for dogs. No, it is a concentration camp for dogs KHIMKI #2. There are about 180 pens with 600 dogs. There are many dying puppies, dogs-skeletons, old sick dogs, trapped dogs. And no helping volunteers, no water plumbing, no sewage, no electricity. 
The pens have wet straw and frozen excrement. The animals are sitting on top of it and there is nobody to change it. Water gets frozen and the dogs are suffering from thirst. Locked in the cages, they can’t even run to get warm. The only 3 Tadzhik workers don’t let them go for a walk and don’t do much, just guard the death conveyor. 
THE ANIMALS ARE BROUGHT HERE TO DIE, slowly and suffering. This is why the official dog trapping is so scary. When outside, a creature has at least some chance… 
There is a girl who is ready to help: encase the pens for warmth-keeping, collect money, buy the supplies, hire and supervise the workers, report on the expenses and the fulfilled work. But she can’t do it all herself! Your help is needed. Money – yes but not so much, many helpful pare of hands are needed badly, dog food.
One pen is 2000 rubles ($70), which is 1500 for supplies and 500 for workers). It is happiness for 4 warmed up dogs. The volunteers start from encasing the cages of puppies and short haired dogs. Warm cage = 4 dogs will make it till summer!
Volunteers tried to save the puppies, but couldn’t – there are too many of them! They are dying daily and can’t wait when volunteers find money to take them away from this hell. If the pens get encased for warm-keeping, at least some of them will get chance to MAKE It THROUGH…” 

_________________________________________

The volunteer girl’s e-mail is priut.sao@gmail.com. 

I don’t know if she speaks English, I am meeting her soon to help. English e-mails for her write to me: bambatik@yahoo.com

MY OPINION: the suffering dogs should get help from whoever is volunteering.. BUT MOSCOW CITY AUTHORITIES should organize a civilized procedure for cleaning streets from stray dogs and taking care of them in a reasonable but HUMANE way. HOW DO THEY DEAL WITH THOSE STRAY DOGS IN THE CIVILIZED WORLD? Irina Lovanova

“There [will always be] evil. But it’s not the norm. The norm is good. That’s why our hearts are uplifted” when we meet someone that is kind, thoughtful, and loving. We feel this way because man is essentially good- essentially humane- for three reasons: our instinct to love, forgive, and rescue those in need. That is how we were created to be… but there are exceptions to every rule. Sometimes the line that separates humanity and inhumanity is crossed, and something horrible happens- like the holocaust, or apartheid, or just one murder- and we gasp in horror and disgust. We wonder how on earth we could be so unsophisticated, so barbaric and truculent. Yet there is hope.

Perhaps some of you know the quote, “What makes us human is not our ability to think, but our ability to love.” I don’t know who said this, but they make a valid point. Our humanity is not determined by how well we can discern, follow orders, or think for ourselves. What truly makes us humane is the love we have for others- and this love is something that everyone has in them- even if the recipient of it is only one other person or thing. Desmond Tutu, who lived through apartheid, “was devastated at our capacity for evil.” But he says, “That’s not the end of the story, nor is it the most important part. The exhilaration was in discovering our capacity for good.”  We all have the ability to be kind- we were born with this- some of us just forget our heritage more easily than others. It is human nature to want to give and receive love; and a nature that must be exploited the fullest in order to rectify the current state of the world. Evil, competition, hatred and the human capabilities of such, are also woven into human nature; but these only exist because they must, in order for love and forgiveness to exist.

If we didn’t have to work through the bad times we’d never know the good times.  I’m not saying that hatred and war and death and sadness are good. I’m saying they’re necessary. Learning how to love even when it’s hard, and to live through atrocities, and still be able to say “ ‘I am ready to forgive’. ” is an essential part of being human- of being who we were born to be.  Elie Wiesel lived through the pain of the holocaust, and yet he does not hold any hatred toward his former captors or the German people as a whole. To him “hate destroys the hater as much as the victim”, and he will not allow the rest of his life to be sabotaged by holding a grudge. Of the german people in this generation he merely says, “The children of killers are not killers, but children.” His readiness to forgive the people that did such terrible things to him- even devastating his family and his nation- shows that there is a humanity there that could not have been simply learned or self taught. Elie Weisel is not the only example of someone who has risen through trajedy and forgiven their enemies. In his book Night, Elie Weisel describes his rescue from a concentration camp by American soldiers, and “[after [all of the prisoners] had eaten]- even though we were no longer hungry, there was still no one who thought of revenge.” The world is full of people who are full of integrity and love and forgiveness- even in hard times… but we focus so much on the bad that we barely even notice them.

It is also part of human nature to want to help and rescue those in need. Whether we act out on these feelings is a different story- but doesn’t change the fact that we are a humane society willing to offer help- or at the very least, able to empathize and feel pity. There are always accounts of people who have given their lives for someone else, or spoken out for another person that needed help. Our country is full of them. We are capable of giving people hope, and we do every single day- just check givesmehope.com. One testimony that I found inspiring was this: “My mom teaches first grade, one year she had a boy who had brain damage and didn’t function like the other kids. 

She had a sub one day and all the kids were complaining about her when she got back. 

They said, “She was mean to our Alex.” 

Their love for “their” Alex gives me hope.” This story just shows that our humanity is formed at a young age, even more proof that humanity is ingrained in us, and is not something that can be forced or learned.

In the end, we are essentially humane because of our instinct to love, forgive, and to provide a safe place for those who need one. The news and magazines don’t show us this- because they prefer to focus on the bad, on the “inhumanity of us all”- but if you pay attention you’ll start to realize that there are enough stories of good to outweigh all the bad a hundred times over. 

In the United States humane slaughter laws do not cover poultry, such as chickens or turkeys, nor do these laws extend to fish, or even rabbits. As such these animals often suffer clearly out of our own failure to provide them with the same laws we extend to cattle, horses, and lambs.

You might then wonder how animals such as cattle, and lambs, are slaughtered.

The main method (although there are others) of slaughtering these animals is by first giving them a stunning bolt to their head (often termed a rubber bullet). As long as they are unconscious enough that they cannot stand on their own – they are considered ready for the next step, which is to be hoisted in the air by one, or both, hind legs. As this point their throat is slashed, and they bleed to death. Only then are they skinned and so forth.

Pigs may be dunked, following stunning, into boiling water, to remove their hairs, prior to having their throat cut (afterwards would cause water to enter the body cavity). There have been all sorts of stories about pigs “waking up” during this painful procedure.

Turkeys – do they not deserve a humane slaughter?  Photo by Cyndy Sims Parr (I have a bad feeling about this) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Alas the poor chickens (and other birds) have no laws (at least not in the USA) regarding humane slaughter, some are gassed, and many are treated very cruelty prior to their death – day old male chicks tossed onto a conveyor belt and fed into a grinder. In fact the chicken is one of the most cruelly kept and cared for animals in our food chain. Chickens are also the most slaughtered animal of all (indeed one dead chicken feeds far fewer people than one dead cow). With no humane slaughter laws to protect them, birds are often carried upside down – while conscious, tossed around, and treated with no regard to the fact they are living animals, capable of feeling pain and suffering.

And, like the pigs, many live chickens may be dunked in boiling water – this makes their feathers come off easier.

One site documents: “More than 850 million chickens are killed each year for KFC and the way they are treated would have resulted in felony cruelty to animals charges if cats or dogs were the victims.”

It is worth noting that McDonalds USA has been protested against for using cruel slaughter methods that have seen chickens suffer with broken wings, and some boiled alive and conscious, and that while McDonalds Europe has switched to more humane methods, as of November 2010, McDonalds USA is still using the cruel slaughter methods.

But it is not just chickens that have no laws to protect them, most other birds used in the food industry, as well as fish, and rabbits, typically have no laws guaranteeing them with a quick, and painfree, death.

You may note that California issued some humane laws for slaughtering poultry but it did not apply to all birds – what they call “spent hens” (meaning laying hens at the end of their first year),and game birds (pigeons, silkie chickens, pheasants, etc.) were not covered.  Read more about Californias laws, here.

And before you are quick to condemn China for skinning cats alive, there are no laws here protecting rabbits from the same fate. They can be stunned and skinned alive in the good old US of A.  You may have seen the Michigan woman skinning live rabbits in the Michael Moore movie, Roger & Me.  You may have seen the skins of rabbits, skinned alive on cute toys sold to children in gift stores around the world (often shaped into tiny animals) some even “breathing”, or making sounds.  If you bought these toys, you supported such cruelty. 

If you do not agree with cruel slaughter methods for birds, rabbits, and so forth, look for Kosher meat, or better yet, avoid eating meat, specifically cruelly slaughtered animals, such as birds, rabbits, and fish.

Also Read:

Dairy and Eggs are NOT Cruelty Free

Why do we Slaughter Horses?

The Horror that is the Karakul Sheep Industry

Health Article by Rajeev Bhargava – Why it Makes Sense to Turn Vegetarian or Vegan

Some people boldly come forward and push others to forgive them. They even go to the extent of blackmailing the person while seeking pardon. Though it sounds ridiculous, such instances have happened. So, there are more people who use the words apology and sorry to get away with what they did, than to get in and fix what they have messed up. So, forgive them and do not forget their mess.

Precaution:

While people seeking apology may or may not deserve it, true humanity lies in forgiving them regardless of the pain and problems they have caused. Once forgiven, get away from them. Make sure not to indulge with them again, as they could repeat what they have done earlier.

Getting Cheated Again is Stupidity:

When a person is cheated once, it could be his/her ignorance, fault or due to the trust in the wrong person. When the person who cheated is apologizing, forgive them (depending on the situation) and do not forget their malicious ways. Getting cheated once is ignorance. Getting cheated twice or more times in same fashion is stupidity. But be wise enough not to fall in the same trap again. Even age-old bean-brained velociraptors are smart enough to avoid the same problem twice. We are highly evolved humans who know better.

Life Goes On:

Whatever happens to us in life, our life goes on. Be it great successes that rise us about the crowds and mountains or failures that push us to dire straits, they will pass on and life will surely move on. So, forgive everybody for everything they have done and move on.

Never Forget The Lesson:

Those who cheat are great teachers who leave behind great lessons of life. Never forget the lesson, but it is the prerogative of the teacher to be forgiven. Life is fun when lessons are learnt and used wisely.

• Known as the unique bed number or the bed number’s child, when I was born. The same is applicable whenever I get admitted throughout the rest of my life.
• Known as unique patient number when I was taken to a pediatrician.
• Known as my unique birth certificate number until I get my name.
• Known as the unique student enrolment number when at school or college.
• Recognized by my unique employee number when I get into a job.
• Known as my unique login when I sign up for an email.
• Given a unique customer ID when I join a bank and bankers recognize me as that number.
• Known by my unique password when I want to draw money from the ATM.
• Recognized by my unique order number when I want to purchase a vehicle, or when I want it to be serviced in mechanic shed.
• Recognized by my unique debit/credit card number when I book a hotel or spend something through a debit/credit card.
• Eligible to pay taxes though my unique personal account number given by tax department.
• Allowed to trade shares using my unique trader login and code.
• Known not by my driving skills, but my unique driving license number when speaking with traffic cops.
• Known as a unique ticket number when I go to watch a match.
• Known by my unique seat number when I go to watch a movie.
• Known by my unique train or flight ticket number when I travel within a country.
• Recognized by my unique passport number, visa number and PAX (passenger) number when I travel abroad.
• Recognized by my unique fingerprints and retinal map by the security systems.
• Residing in a home recognized by its house number unique to that street.
• Assigned a unique cadaver number after life abandons me, and known by it until being processed properly.
• A unique person having so many unique numbers when alive and afterwards.
• Eligible to have a name which they say is not unique, despite having so many unique numbers.

Food for thought: Are we unique or just our numbers or codes by which we are seen by people around us?

Unknown

Many cases of abuse and cruelty are unknown and go unreported. Until a raid by authorities, or a report is filed, cases of cruelty and abuse can go on for years. Even once discovered, just how many animals had suffered previously remains unknown.

Many cases of cruelty happen in private homes, behind closed doors. Dogs are kicked because they have messed on the rug. Cats are forced to live outside because they have not been using the litter box. Pets medical needs are neglected, or they are underfed.

Somebody who has just kicked their pet to death, or threw a bag of unwanted kittens onto the highway, is not going to phone in and report themselves or their actions.

We will never know how many dogs are living in horrid cages, being used to churn out puppy after puppy for the pet store industry, although it is likely thousands.

We will never know how many dogs have suffered because of dog fighting.  But let us not forget the bulls, in bull fights, the roosters, in cock fights, and some nations even encourage stallions (male horses) to fight.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/y-its-mom_pics_of_wyatt/3223058095/

Opinion

It is hard to calculate what is cruel and what is not. For example is putting a dogs nose in its own excrement cruel? Is warehousing cattle for the purpose of slaughter cruel? Is animal research cruel? If a farmer takes and drowns a bag of kittens, or shoots a dog abandoned on his property, is that cruel? What if an animal shelter euthanized the animals instead?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Animal_Abuse_Battery_Cage_02.jpg

Is letting an old animal suffer in pain cruel? Is keeping hens in tiny cages for egg production cruel?

Is killing a kitten, or guinea pig, for the purpose of feeding it to a snake cruel?

Animal testing is legal, so we must ask, is it cruel? At what point do actions become cruel?

In some areas keeping a dog on a chain is considered cruelty, and is illegal. In some areas declawing a cat is considered cruel, and is illegal. In other areas these things are done commonly and openly.

Contradiction

Because laws on cruelty vary in different areas, what is considered cruel in one area may not be considered cruel in another. As an example England has banned the declawing of cats as it is considered cruel, however other countries still allow this. When measuring incidents cruelty on a whole, how does one decide which events to count. Individuals also will have differences of opinions when it comes to what they think is cruel and what they do not find cruel.

Allowed Cruelty

Some acts of cruelty are legal. This would include actions done in the food and drug industries, as well as the pet industry. These acts, because legal, are not prosecuted, and therefor are not documented as incidents of cruelty.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/walmartmovie/20073328/ 

Indeed male betta fish (as seen in the cups above) should not be put together, their needs for space are far bigger than these half full cups would allow.  Although hard to see, each cup contains one fish about 2-3 inches long.

Facts

When we try to formulate facts we need to have such known things as the area (or country) being considered, and a time frame, in other words we might ask how many animals were victims of abuse in Texas, USA, for the year 2009.

Record Keeping

It also must be noted that records of animal abuse are often simply not kept. Cases may be known but unless prosecuted, there is no hard documentation of them.

Thoughts…

A man in California kicks his own dog. The dog suffers no physical injury. The incident is reported but because the dog shows no scars, and there is no proof of abuse, the abuse is not prosecuted. 10,000 battery hens are warehoused with less than a square foot of space each, because this is allowed in the food industry it is not reported as cruelty.

A ferret breeder who provides pets for pet stores finds three of his females are no longer able to breed, he breaks their necks.

A rabbit sits in a cage nearly blinded because of chemicals being tested on its eyes.

A cat is tortured by the neighbor of its owner, just because it came into their yard at the wrong time.

A hamster is set free in an area where the climate will get too cold for it to live, its owner got bored of it and decided to release it.

A Betta fish sits in a tiny cup at the pet store, without even enough room to straighten its back.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanhsu/3465425301/  Do you think this is cute… or cruel?  Would you buy them?  Would you reward the seller with cash?  Would you report them?  Or would you walk away? 

We will never know just how many animals are abused, or by whom. To get the numbers of abused animals is impossible. It is better to focus on why abuse happens, and how we can prevent it.

April is the ASPCA’s Anti-Animal Cruelty month, please visit their website

http://www.aspca.org/

Related Links

What to do when you suspect Animal Abuse

Is Horse Racing Cruel?

Why do People Kill Pets?

The Problem with Pet Stores

According to PETA, “China supplies more than half of the finished fur garments imported for sale in the United States, so the bottom line is that because dog and cat fur is so often mislabeled, if you’re buying fur, there’s no way to tell whose skin you’re wearing.”

Anybody who buys ANY kind of fur is contributing to the global demand for fur. Unfortunatley even with the bans, the United States and Europe are still the largest consumers of fur in the world, and this makes China the largest fur export country in the world.

Voice your opinion to put a stop to this, there are many ways that you can help:

Write a letter to the Abassador of China to urge the country to stop this cruel practice.

His Excellency Zhou Wenzhong
Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Ave. N.W.
Washington, DC 20008
202-328-2574
202-328-2582 (fax)

Visit FurIsDEAD, for more information, to sign an online petition, and to get more materials to become an activist.

Sign the petition at The Animal Rescue Site to put a stop to the import of dog and cat fur to Canada.

Go to HSUS (The Humane Society of the United States) to get more information on the fur trade.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, or S.P.C.C., is an organization involved in the protection of children from neglect and mistreatment.  It was founded in 1875, in New York City, by Elbridge T. Gerry, at a time when children were being beaten and mistreated by their parents. 

The S.P.C.C. takes care of abused and neglected children.  In some instances, when the mistreatment of children is considered to be serious and harmful,  children are taken away from their abusive parents and legally transferred to the care of Court-appointed guardians.  Its services are extended even further, in the area of crimes against children by adults, other than their parents.  In this respect, help is provided in the way of extending medical and mental care for children when parents are unable to do so themselves.