Growing up it was common to come home and see my step sister washing a dog I’ve never seen before in my drive way. Whenever she would see a dog multiple times wandering the streets that looked neglected and grungy, she would take them in; that’s just the type of person she is. She would take home the stray, clean them, feed them, and put an ad on craigslist hoping to find an owner. However, if one never turned up she would place the dog for adoption. One of the dogs she brought home was a tiny black dog. We named him Oliver. He was cute, energetic, and loved nothing more than sleeping next to you at night. She found him alongside the road on multiple occasions, you could see his ribs underneath his matted hair and flea infested skin. His owners neglected him, and once he got out of the house they didn’t bother to look for him. Even after my step-sister contacted him, they decided they did not want Oliver. Animal abuse is an injustice that happens every day, yet most of society is blind to it.

Animal testing is more common than you would think. A direct quote from the PETA website says that “[e]ach year, more than 100 million animals…are killed in U.S. laboratories for biology lessons, medical training, curiosity-driven experimentation, and chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics testing.” (1) In fact, I wrote a letter to Maybelline Cosmetics in 2013 asking them about their animal testing. They said that in 1989 they were 100% free of animal testing, but lately have resorted to old habits. Maybelline had a profit of approximately 25 billion dollars in the year 2014, imagine how many animals had to be tested on to make that many products (2). Those innocent animals can’t do anything to defend themselves, in a world ran by humans they have no voice. Society says its torture to test humans, to use them as “human guinea pigs”, yet they never think of the real guinea pigs. Many times the reason people use makeup tested on animals is because they think it’s better quality, but that’s not always the case. Some great animal-cruelty free brands are Too Faced, Urban Decay, and Anastasia Beverly Hills. These are popular, quality brands that I’m sure all of you know, including the boys. This proves that it’s rather easy to use animal-cruelty free brands and many times we don’t even have to go out of our way to do so. I know we don’t mean to harm these animals, but if we buy products from these brands as well as others, a true change can occur.

Wake up, ham and eggs. Lunch time, turkey sandwich. Family time, steak. Done with homework, ice cream. By the end of all that, there was 5 animals either killed or abused for your daily intake of calories. Over 56 billion farm animals are killed every year by humans (3). This doesn’t even include sea life that has been murdered for human consumption. Next time you eat a chicken breast think about the room stocked full of hens that are force fed so much they can’t walk due to broken legs, are shut in pitch black for 24 hours, and have to sit in their own feces. Next time you eat veal picture the baby cow that was taken away from its mother in as little as 2 hours after its birth. The food industry doesn’t want its customers to think about how their food got onto their plate because they know the truth, and the truth never is pretty. This is a harder form of animal abuse to help, especially since most people don’t want to cut meat out of their diet. However, free-range animals and organic food is a small way we can all help, it’s very simple! You also don’t have to worry about cost either. For example, Simple Truth is an organic brand and has very reasonable, and even better prices! An example of this is their toasted oats cereal is only $2.59 a box, whereas Cheerios are $3.19 a box. Organic natural food won’t make you change your spending habits, and it won’t make you change your eating habits.

After housing little Oliver for a couple of weeks, our neighbors adopted him. He had a family, a home, a full stomach, a life. He was one of the lucky ones. An animal who was abused but got a comeback story in the end…a true underdog. Pun intended. Animal abuse is an issue that has been going on for so long that there is no longer an excuse for why it has not been resolved. It’s time to step up, take action. Now I understand, sometimes it seems like there is nothing we can do and that our single voice won’t cause a huge chain reaction, but there is actually so much we can do! We can consume organic food, and only use products that haven’t been tested on animals. None of these steps are hard to take, and they all save a life in the end. Be like my step sister, and go out and rescue an Oliver. Thank you.