By Phil Riske | Senior Reporter/Writer
We hear a lot about child abuse.
We don’t hear enough about pet/animal abuse.
One only has to follow numerous cases in the Phoenix area or watch one edition of “Animal Planet” or “Animal Cops Phoenix on the horror the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) confronts on a daily basis:
Horses that haven’t been fed for weeks;
Dogs with their collars embedded an inch deep into their flesh;
A home in Philadelphia containing 500 cats, most of them dead;
A dog that had lost half its blood supply to ticks in its ears,
And it goes on an on with even more gory details.
Nearly equally appalling is the disposition of animal abuse cases: Those found guilty of the crime are usually let off lightly. Merely taking their animals away from their custody is not enough. Merely fining someone $300 for animal abuse is not enough. Merely ordering a pet owner to take the pet to a vet for a checkup is not even a slap on the wrist.
Someone convicted of child abuse can get years in prison.
The same should be considered for animal abusers.
After all, humans are animals, and animals should be treated as humans.
