11 facts about animal abuse

1. In many circuses, wild and exotic animals are trained through the use of intimidation and physical abuse. Former circus employees have reported seeing animals beaten, whipped, poked with sharp objects and even burned to force them to learn their routines!
2. Elephants who perform in circuses are often kept in chains for as long as 23 hours a day from the time they are babies.
3. More than 25 million vertebrate animals are used in testing in the United States each year. When invertebrate animals are thrown into the mix, the estimated number rises to as high as 100 million.
4. By 2022, 22% of all species will be extinct if no action is taken.
5. If you live in Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Rhode Island, Illinois, Virginia, Oregon, New York, New Jersey and Vermont you have the legal right to refuse to participate in dissection in class! In Louisiana, there is a State resolution and in Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland and New Mexico, there are Departments of Education resolutions in place that allow you to refuse to dissect, although it hasn’t yet become a law.
6. Dog fighting and cock-fighting are illegal in all 50 states.
7. It is estimated that on average it takes 1,000 dogs to maintain a mid-sized racetrack operation. New greyhounds are continually entering the system to replace greyhounds that grade-off due to injury, age or poor performance. There are currently over 30 tracks operating in the United States.
8. Tens of thousands of wild and domesticated horses from the United States are cruelly slaughtered every year to be used for horse meat in Europe and Asia. Since the last horse slaughter plants in the U.S. were closed in 2007, thousands of horses have been shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter.
9. Many studies have found a link between cruelty to animals and other forms of interpersonal violence.
10. Neglect and abandonment are the most common forms of companion animal abuse in the United States.
11. A fur coat is pretty cool—for an animal to wear. Eighteen red foxes are killed to make one fox-fur coat, 55 minks to make a mink coat.