Does your neighbor's dog have untreated wounds on its body? Is it missing hair, extremely thin, or infested with ticks and fleas? There may be a chance this animal is being neglected or abused. In this case it is your responsibility to report this abuse to your nearest humane society. The fact is, animals are being mistreated all around us, but most cases are never reported. Although animal neglect and abuse is horrible, the culprit is not usually rightfully apprehended.

Animals are considered property. Stealing somebody else's poodle is just the same as taking their pearl earrings. When a case is reported, the humane society sends a complaint to the police who send someone over to investigate. If there is evidence of abuse, the case is sent to a district attorney, who handles it using property laws. There are barely any laws protecting farm animals, which is why they can legally be treated so horribly. But that's O.K, because apparently animals aren't living beings, just walking hamburgers.

To be sure, abuse is not always intentional. Most often it is due to lack of knowledge or resources. Therefore, I think the answer is education. Also, sometimes people acquire illegal or exotic pets and don't know how to care for them. It was very popular in the past, for instance, for the rich to have dangerous animals such as cougars or lions for pets. It is illegal now, of course, but some still try to buy or sell prohibited animals.

In some cases, it is not only the animal who is being abused. Animal abuse can be used to harm humans, too. There have been many reports of someone harming the family pet to terrorize the family. Truly, abuse of pets can be just the beginning of worse crimes. In teenagers, animal abuse can be a gateway crime that leads to more illegal crimes. I think that if criminal activity is nipped in the bud than it won't escalate to more serious cases.

"It's getting better, but we still have a long way to go," said Keri Fennell, Director of Customer Service at the Marin Human Society, when asked about current animal cruelty laws. In the past, lawyers and judges were more inclined against prosecution. Now, however, there is new social and cultural awareness in the world.

There are some types of abuse that we don't even realize are transpiring. Circuses, for example, are institutions where people pay money to see animals that live in extremely confined spaces being forced to do tricks. Some places, like Marin County, don't allow circuses with animals. Although this angers some, who do not know or just don't care about what happens behind the scenes, I agree that we shouldn't support blatant acts of cruelty.

Another form of abuse that we don't usually think of as being illegal is continuous chaining. If a dog is chained for long periods of time, it will become unhappy and aggressive. Dogs are social creatures and if they are stuck in the same place without attention, they will grow neurotic and anxious. Also, if the chained animal is attacked, it cannot run and save itself. The problem with this issue, is that, though horrible, there are no clear boundaries in the law. It's extremely hard to find how long a dog can be chained or the conditions in which the dog can be kept in before it becomes illegal. Without clear limits and boundaries, it is very difficult to file charges.

There is a lot of horrible abuse around us that we don't realize the enormity of, although we consider ourselves in a culture without animal cruelty. If more people are educated on these issues, the more we can fight for rights as living beings. The next generation must change the way of thinking and remember that we all live on the same Earth and should protect, not harm, each other.