A call for Pet Rights (When you are abandoning your pet)

Problem and goal

Problem
The number of pets abused and neglected in the U.S. is on the rise. The number of reported and unreported cases of pet cruelty has burgeoned in the recent few years, as Americans become more and more willing to coexist with these animals in their households. The law propels the problem, as it does not recognize the legal rights of pets.

Goal
Eliminate the incidence of pet abuse and neglect in the U.S.

Market research

The problem
According to the Insurance Information Institute, 68% of the American households usually have a pet . This number translates to approximately 85 million families. The most common pets are dogs (60.2 million) followed by cats (47.1 million) and freshwater fish (12.5 million). The other pets found in the U.S. households include birds (7.9 million), small animals (6.7 million), reptiles (4.7 million), horse (2.6 million), and saltwater fish (2.5 million) . These statistics vividly shows that Americans have a strong connection with pets. While this is the case, research shows that the majority of the pet owners in the country are abandoning these animals, which imply a diminishing case of pet rights. For example, ASPCA, a not-for-profit firm that makes an effort to prevent cruelty to animals in the U.S., supposes that 6.5 million pets usually enter animal shelters each year .
Unfortunately, a significant proportion of these animals, approximately 1.5 million including 860,000 cats and 670,000 dogs, are usually too weak at the time of entering the shelter such that authorities must euthanize them. In addition to this, ASPCA demonstrates that about 710,000 pets brought into the shelters are stray animals and authorities often return them to their respective owners . A further category of research has shown that, as much as the Americans love pets, they tend to show cruelty to them. Animal cruelty refers to deliberate acts of harm and neglect of the pets’ needs. Do Something Org. reports that about 250,000 pets in the U.S. become victims of hoarding each year .

Who is abusing/neglecting the pets?
Households in which domestic violence is prevalent are the ones in which pet abuse and neglect occur the most. The Humane Society of the United States relates that between 71 and 83 percent of women entering domestic shelters usually claim that their abusers also injured or killed the family pet(s) . Men are more likely to subject pets to cruelty than women. Besides, the rate of pet abuse and neglect by people born in the U.S. is higher than that of the documented immigrants . The White Americans followed by the African Americans are more likely to exhibit cruelty to their pets. Hispanics and Indian/Native/Alaska/Asian Americans are not regulars when it comes to the abuse and neglect of pets .

Reasons for the popularity of the problem and a possible solution
The most plausible reason for abuse and neglect of pets is a lack of pet rights. Sentient Media holds out that some people not only in the U.S. but also across other parts of the world do not believe that animals have rights . Sentient Media adds that insofar the U.S government has passed laws that the court can bring charges against an individual for being cruel to animals; pets lack any specified legal rights . In addition to this, most people are of the idea that nonhuman animals usually do not have complex cognitive capacities and language skills, which then make them lesser than humans. This belief, therefore, prevails as the major reason for the tendency of people to abuse and neglect pets. In light of this, a comprehensive solution to the pet problems is to come up with the legal rights of pets and educate the Americans about them.

Target audience
Given the appearance of the problem and the suggested solution, the policymakers, pet rights activists, and pet owners are the primary targets.

Topic : A call for Pet Rights (When you are abandoning your pet)...