Reasons for Animal Cruelty

Animal cruelty covers a wide range of actions (or lack of action), so one blanket answer simply isn't possible.

There are different types of animal cruelty.  Some are intentional and others are not.  One of the most important things to remember is that if someone is planning on owning an animal, they should acknowledge how much time and money it requires to keep the animal happy.  This could avoid many problems.  If just about anyone wants and can obtain an animal, even if they can't care for it, it creates a demand that the suppliers will meet.  If the producers can make more offspring, it will make so many new animals that the market will not be able to care for all of them.  The result of this is many animals are put to sleep, or must live in a tiny box without any contact.  Most of us don't see what happens to these animals, but it is extremely depressing.  Even at ARF, which is quite literally a luxury apartment for an animal, it's depressing to know that they don't have a single owner or house.  Much of this can be avoided by not encouraging suppliers and breeders to make more animals.  These animals end up in the wrong hands on a massive scale.  3% of American dogs and cats are euthanized out of 135 million that have homes.  Many more are in shelters, and there are even more who are probably living in horrible conditions.