Let's Reinforce Positivity

An elephant is slowly treading in an open field with it’s trainer on it’s back, it is a hot, sunny, humid day and soon the elephant gets exhausted he wants to slow down but he knows what will await him if he does. He pushes on, but then after a while he can’t take the heat anymore, stops and falls to the ground. The trainer immediately pulls out a hook with a tip as sharp as a knife and with one swift motion he drives it into the elephant’s shoulder. The elephant yelps in pain and agony, but the trainer doesn’t stop. He repeats this action again, and again, and again until the elephant starts moving.

You would be surprised to know that this is still going on in today’s society. More specifically in Thailand, these trainers are known as Mahouts and because of tradition they are made to treat their elephant in this cruel. They use tools like sharp hooks and steel chains to get the elephant to ‘behave’ and respect them.

These actions cause many permanent mental and physical disabilities, from things like non functioning eye to a non functioning foot and not being able to move at all because of mental disabilities. This leaves the animal scarred on both the inside and outside. These practises have been going on for centuries, and now it is very difficult to stop this as it is happening on such a large scale.

The Elephant Nature park is doing the best the can to help with this ever growing cause. They provide a home for these abused animals by buying them from their mahout and bringing them to their huge park in Chiang Mai, Thailand. They currently have 63 elephants and plan on expanding. Over here they educate people on why we should help these animals and the threats to them, and the area is open for tourism. Over here there is no elephant riding as research shows that this is very harmful to the elephants.

Josh Chanmugam, an eighth grade student from UWCSEA said, “If you are trying to discipline a dog you may need to use physical force if all else fails”. Many people agree with him and use electric collars to train their dogs. So whenever the dog does something bad the owner can push a button to send an electric shock through the dog. This way the dog registers that action as something they should not do. However, too much of the electric shocks can cause the dog to have a heart attack. But is this method better that positive reinforcement , and if it is, is it worth taking the risk of your pet dying to make it follow your orders better?

John Krupa another 8th grade student said, “Why should we treat animal differently from humans the only difference from them and us is that we talk.” But statistics show us that most of the animal cruelty that occurs isn’t intentional, and often happens because of ignorance and less social awareness about the issue. That brings us to the question, is animal cruelty society’s fault or the person who is hurting the animal’s fault?

Animal cruelty has been an issue that has been in our society for a really long time and many people think it needs to be stopped. But how can we do this and more important is it even possible? Vaibhav ‘V’ Bakhshi, an 8th grader, said, “Animal cruelty is a big issue in our society today and it cannot be stopped”. He is correct by saying that animal cruelty is a big issue in today’s society. It is estimated that over 300,000 animals are killed every year, and 53% of those animals that are abused are dogs. But is animal cruelty really happening as much as we think is or is it all just hyped up?

According to SPCA Singapore there have been about 177 known cases of animal cruelty from just July to September, this year in Singapore. These statistics prove to us that animal cruelty isn’t exaggerated and needs to be stopped soon. The SPCA had the details of many of the horrific animal cruelty cases. One of them caught most people’s eyes and was even featured in the newspaper.

It was about Lim Soo Seng, a 76 year old businessman. In, April this year he was fined $10,000 for starving his 8 year old mongrel to death, he didn’t take the dog to the vet even though it was severely emaciated because he claimed he was busy. The SPCA along with many other people are trying to initiate an online petition for a jail term for him.

Many 8th grade students say that the only way to stop animal cruelty is to address it at the roots and educate people about animal cruelty rather than just help the animals that are abused, but this may not not work. Animals are the test subjects for many drugs and cosmetics even though the owners are well aware about the side effects of these actions. Some of the animals that are treated this way are pigs, mice, dogs and cats. This is why many people think this is an issue that cannot be stopped.

Many people say that the laws set for animal cruelty are insufficient as they cannot even send someone to jail for intentionally killing an animal. “The laws and punishment on animal cruelty are very light and people can literally get away with murder”, said an eighth grader from UWCSEA. This is very true as the maximum penalty for animal cruelty is a $10,000 fine along with 1 year in prison, and this is for worst cases like killing multiple animals. Many people say the punishment need to be increased so that people stop doing these horrendous acts, and the people who do so are brought to justice.

So today you can start by telling your children and friends that it is wrong and maybe tomorrow you will be the leader of an initiative to stop animal cruelty and animal testing and fighting for animal rights.

And if we stop this we will be enforcing positivity into the world.