Incidents of ignoring animals far outnumber incidents involving abuse

By Darlene Pham
<[email protected] >

Freshman Jessica “Ashley” Appleton once owned two cats, two gerbils, a hamster, a guinea pig, two fire-belly toads, a crayfish and 300 fish. However, none of the mentioned animals are alive today.
“We didn’t have them all at the same time. We just got some, and they all died or ate each other, and we got more,” Appleton said.

According to Appleton, most of the animals died due to neglect or by accidental means. The gerbils died, she said, because her brother accidentally froze them to death. The hamster passed away because it suffocated.

“I forgot to clean its cage, so it buried itself and died,” Appleton said. The cause of death for the fish is that they all ate one another. The crayfish drowned and the toads died due to neglect.

Appleton’s story is not uncommon. According to pet-abuse.com, the most common type of animal cruelty is neglect or abandonment. In other words, people don’t necessarily provide adequate care for animals in their ownership. In many of these cases, it is due to the owner’s lack of knowledge of how to properly take care of their pets. In other cases, people just do not care and animals may not be seen as living beings, but simply as things a person owns.

“Neglect is defined as owning an animal and not providing adequate food, water, shelter, training, sanitary conditions and affection,” Rebecca Ebert, volunteer coordinator for the Humane Society for Hamilton County, said via e-mail. According to Ebert, neglect could also mean keeping your pet outside on a chain or leash for more than a few minutes or not providing food, water or shelter from weather. Unlike abuse, neglect is not considered to be intentional but results in the animal not receiving proper care.

Sarah Fields, volunteer at the Hamilton County Humane Society and sophomore, has a different definition. “Neglect is lack of taking care of your pet when you should, and lack of an education is a poor excuse. If you have a pet, you should know enough to try and take good care of them,” Fields said.

For Appleton’s two cats, one ran away, while the other was attacked by a raccoon and a coyote.

“We let (the cat) outside one night. A raccoon saw it and tried to eat it. Then a coyote came and saw the raccoon eating the cat. He half ate the cat and killed the raccoon. We found the cat half-dead on the porch, and the raccoon was spread all over our yard. I was really mad. My parents decided to take our cat to a shelter, but it died on the way there,” Appleton said.

Appleton’s parents’ decision to take the dying cat to an animal shelter is not unusual. According to Ebert, the number of severe abuse cases is no more than 10 per year, while cases of neglect can reach up to 100 per year. At any time, the shelter houses about 300 animals. According to The Humane Society of the United States, the number of animal neglect cases decreased slightly over the years, but is now an increasing problem in today’s society.

Fields said the problem of neglect is a big one, not only among animals such as cats and dogs, but also “pocket pets,” such as hamsters.

“Pockets pets are commonly neglected because most people don’t consider them as important as the bigger pets. Also stores like Petco or PetSmart do not tell you how to properly care for small animals. People assume that these pocket pets have short life spans, but in reality if you take good care of them, they can live for a long time,” Fields said.

There are many ways to prevent animal neglect, according to Ebert. The most effective one is for people to start taking care of the animals they own. People must educate themselves before they can educate others on pet care, according to the pet-abuse.com.

Ebert also said educating the public is the best way to prevent neglect. “Adopting a pet should never be done on a whim. Serious thought needs to occur before committing to pet ownership. Ignoring a pet is just as bad as abusing it,” Ebert said.

For Appleton, she’s not planning on any pets for awhile. She said, “We may get a dog, and hopefully we will keep alive this time. I definitely learned from this experience. Animals should be carefully taken care of and they deserve to be treated well.”

Signs of Neglect
According to pet-abuse.com, the majority of animal cruelty cases are neglect cases. The underlying reason for these cases is often ignorance.  Here are some indicators of pet neglect.

Collar too tight
Not increasing the size of a collar as an animal grows causes injury, strangulation and death.

Lack of grooming
Without regular grooming, a pet, especially a long-haired one, can get massive matting and sores.

Mange
Mange, caused by tiny parasites, leads to itching, loss of hair and sores from scratching and biting to relieve the irritation.

Starvation
Starvation is caused not only by lack of food, but also by improper food, untreated disease and parasites (like worms).

Pet-abuse.com/source