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Second-place winner of the Fund for the Animal's 2000 Year of the Humane Child essay contest in the middle school division! See the Fund's online article.

For years animal research has cured diseases, saved lives, and made medical breakthroughs. Or has it? You just might be suprised to find out what animal research has done. Nothing! Let's start with a cell's structure. Every animal is different at the molecular level. ... Read more

I know there are always going to be people in the world that think killing animals for "sport," entertainment, and food is okay. However, when teachers reenforce these opinions in the minds of vulnerable, ignorant children, a new generation is being created of heartless, savage people who think humans are the only species deserving of painless, peaceful, life on this earth... Read more

What happened was cold-blooded murder. Imagine being burned, kicked, and thrown around until the pain gets so bad that you can't take it anymore and you just give up. Then, to make it worse, your killer throws your limp body into the dog pen to make it look as though the dogs did it. ... Read more

My son was now the youngest fawn in the woods, and I feared every day that the men would come again and snatch his young, carefree life away from him with a single burst of fire and a wicked laugh. And today, they did come. The sound of crunching leaves and hushed whispers as my son pranced in the sunlight told me danger was on its way... Read more

Every year, 200 million innocent lives are taken for fun, and the murderers receive no punishment for it. In fact, the government gives these murderers permission to kill. These murderers like to call themselves hunters -- a word that, for them, brings to mind a fun, macho sport that lets them camp out, learn wildlife respect... Read more

Kids 4 Animal Rights & Education O N L I N E   E S S A Y   A R C H I V E Read five interesting and touching articles by KARE members Danny Stauffer and Brittney Buckley or fill out a form to submit your own articles for publication!

Kids 4 Animal Rights & Education O N L I N E   E S S A Y   A R C H I V E Read five interesting and touching articles by KARE members Danny Stauffer and Brittney Buckley or fill out a form to submit your own articles for publication!

Every year, 200 million innocent lives are taken for fun, and the murderers receive no punishment for it. In fact, the government gives these murderers permission to kill. These murderers like to call themselves hunters -- a word that, for them, brings to mind a fun, macho sport that lets them camp out, learn wildlife respect, and bond with their fathers or sons.          However, what the word "hunter" should bring to mind is the millions of living, breathing animals who are senselessy and painfully murdered every year because of a "tradition" among the savage beasts we call man kind. But is man really that kind? Is hunting okay? Do those animals deserve to die out of what hunters call sport?          No. It has been proven millions of times that animals feel pain, sorrow, anger, happiness, love, jealousy, and many more emotions that some humans believe only we can experience. If you have a cat or dog, you know that. If you've ever stayed on a farm or witnessed the birth of an animal, you know that. You know that animals are intelligent, some able to outwit men. Animals suffer when they are injured. They grieve when a friend or child dies. And they are terrified when a man points a gun at them and pulls the trigger. They are smart enough to know what pain and suffering this man plans to inflict on them and their family.          If animals have so many emotions and abilities, why do so many of them become one of hundreds of millions of living shooting targets for "macho" fathers, sons, and even women across the world? Perhaps these hutners will try to defend their murders by saying that it is a humane method of wildlife population management. However, wildlife populations vary because of factors like the size of their habitat, how much food and water they can find, how severe the climate is, and how many natural predators are in the area. They manage themselves without our help, but hunters still try to argue that they are doing what is necessary to prevent wild animals from interfering with or even injuring humans. They argue that if they don't kill the animal first, they will die of starvation or an automobile collision. However, these arguments usually only account for white-tailed deer -- only 2 percent of the population of hunted animals. Hunters claim that deer will eat lawn shrubs or wander onto busy highways if they're not hunted and killed first. However, the truth is that most of our states purposely attempt to increase the deer population specifically for hunters. Some wildlife management areas allow farmers to plant on their property in hopes of big game. In fact, when a certain percentage of an area's deer population is killed off by hunters, the deer mate even more to make up for the loss and create overpopulation in that area. And, of course, people are overpopulated as well. The number of babies in China is increasing so quickly that there are laws as to how many children each family can have, but murder was never an option. Let's face it -- the deer over-population isn't due to a lack of hunting; it's due to too much hunting. The other 98% of hunted animals, including ducks, geese, squirrels, and doves are not overpopulated. In fact, their very existence on Earth is being threatened by the growing number of animals killed every year. The overpopulation argument is completely illogical, considering the many species in the world put onto the endangered -- and extinct -- species lists because of "sport" hunters.          Perhaps hunters will try to justify their murders because they eat the animals they kill. However, we all know that the reason for the animals' deaths was not so that the hunter could feed his family. It was for enjoyment. The cruel chase, injury, and murder of an animal cannot be justified by the fact that the killer eats the meat, which he does not need to survive. If a species much more powerful than us hunted humans down every day and murdered them, would you excuse them because they ate our flesh afterwards? Of course not.          Another common defense made my hunters is that the animal will starve in the winter if they aren't quickly put out of their "misery" by a hunter. Yet, this usually only accounts for a small fraction of killed animals. The millions of game birds, squirrels, waterfowl, and rabbits murdered every year would not have starved. If the hunters truly felt sorry for starving deer, they would not try to maintain large numbers of deer in state wildlife areas. They wouldn't kill the mothers and fathers of newborn deer, forcing them to be left alone through their first, and most likely last, winter. They would not aim for the strongest, largest buck -- the one with the best odds of surviving winter. And most of all, if they were at all concerned with the animals, they would not murder them at all. They would let them continue living in the habitat God created for them, free of fear, pain, and suffering. Free of sport hunting.          "Sport" hunting is an odd choice of words, actually. Hunting is not a sport. A sport has two equal sides, both able to defend themselves and both aiming toward the same goal. One side is not armed while the other is completely helpless, forced to flee for their life. Sports are not fatal. They don't cause senseless pain or suffering. Both opponents want to play. In hunting, the hunters are the only ones "playing." They track down their victim and murder it without giving it a chance to fight for its life. The only way that this could be called fair was if the animal, too, was given a gun and a spot from which they could track down their unknowing victim, a human, and kill him or her with one or two shots without receiving any sort of retaliation. Even then, the sport could not be called a sport. Hunting is not a sport. This is not a fun tradition. This is cruel, meaningless murder, and it must stop.          If hunters stopped to think about their "sport" from the animals' perspective, they might realize just how cruel and savage hunting is. If humans across the nation took a stand against hunting, many lives could be saved. Many animals would live to raise their young. Many more rabbits would hop carelessly through fields. Many more squirrels would pounce about backyard trees, delighting small children and living one more year on Earth. Many more birds would fly in our skies, singing beautiful songs and decorating the clouds with their beautiful colors. Many more ducks would swim in our ponds. Without hunting, the world would be a better place, to say the least. Without hunting, 200 million more animals would be in this world every year. Without hunting, all of God's creations would be able to live in peace and harmony.

This morning, right after the sky was filled with a colorful burst of orange and pink sunshine, my son, a beautiful white-tailed deer just like my mate and I, stretched his legs and began to prance through the sunny woods, eager to begin a new day in his peaceful home. He moved cheerfully and calmly through tranquil trees. For some terrible reason, that morning I began to remember a day that had not been so peaceful and alive; the day that terrible humans visited us, carrying with them slender black sticks filled with small explosions. I remembered seeing with my own eyes as a smaller, brightly clad boy pointed the weapon at the youngest fawn in the woods. With a pull of the trigger, she fell to the ground, crying out in terrible agony. The men and child left her behind, laughing and joking and telling the boy not to say anything about his "out-of-season kill" to his mother. It hadn't been a kill, though - not yet. The fawn died the next day after many excruciating hours of writing in her own blood, a look of terror still painted across her innocent eyes.          My son was now the youngest fawn in the woods, and I feared every day that the men would come again and snatch his young, carefree life away from him with a single burst of fire and a wicked laugh. And today, they did come. The sound of crunching leaves and hushed whispers as my son pranced in the sunlight told me danger was on its way. When the trees were rustled by evil men with bright jackets and large boots, my heart froze in my chest. I looked over at my son as they came closer, proudly holding their long black guns at their sides. There were three of them, skinny and gray-haired, and a with them was a young boy, like my own. The men were laughing a wicked and bloodthirsty laugh. Suddenly, one man stopped and pointed toward me. I froze in horror, hoping I had not become yet another target in their cruel, arbitrary killing game. As the men came closer, I became more and more paralyzed with fright. I looked into my son's lonely, terrified eyes and then to the ground I would soon fall to. Instead of preserving my life forever in a beautiful painting or photograph, they insisted on grabbing it away from me. They insisted on leaving my innocent son on his own and, with a loud pull of their trigger, thrusting me into the dirt to die like an insect. They took all my years of being a mother, all my years of playing, and eating, and breathing, and sleeping; all my years of life, never bothering anyone or causing any trouble, only enjoying the life God gave me, and they replaced that with their lust to murder. Suddenly, a huge shot rang out through the forest, and the awful burning smell of gun powder filled the air. I fell to the bloody ground and lay there, breathing in my last few breaths as the men cheered and whistled, celebrating the horrendous pain they had just caused my son and I by savagely, senselessy murdering me in my own home. And they suffered no punishment for it.

I got Annie when she was four or five weeks old. Just hardly old enough, if at all, to be departed from her mother. So, why early?          It happened on a night in June of 2000. Nobody knows exactly what happened or why, but it was enough to make us mad.          There was this not-so-good kid who lived in my neighborhood (and I am  happy to use the past tense.) If you saw the way he treated his cat, you would not be able to put what happened past him.          So, what happened? What happened was cold-blooded murder. Imagine being burned, kicked, and thrown around until the pain gets so bad that you can't take it anymore and you just give up. Then, to make it worse, your killer throws your limp body into the dog pen to make it look as though the dogs did it.          Also, imagine the fear on your children's faces as they watch you slowly slipping away. Too young to do anything, they can just watch. When we first got Annie, she was completely scared of people. Who could blame her?          Of course, this did not happen to Annie, but to her mother. Annie and her brothers and sisters were all left without a mother and half, I am sad to say, died. Annie currently being the smallest of the remaining kittens would not have made it on her own.          This is just one of the stories of abuse and neglect that I could tell you about. Animal abuse is too common, and instead of just learning about it and being saddened by it, do something about it!          I was surfing the net one day and I ended up at www.hsus.org. They had this teen section and there was this spot about clubs. Anyone who would like to start a club should go to www.humaneteen.org and go to their section about starting a club. They have an easy and helpful list of steps you can take to start a group. Now we can do something about animal abuse!

My middle school/high school campus is located in the middle of a forest full of trees, ponds, and wildlife, and although it's a cozy location to learn in, it presents a few problems when practically every guy in my school hunts and has been taught from birth that killing animals is okay. Last year, a student in my grade threw a rock at a rabbit and killed it just outshde a classroom. This student, also an avid hunter, was punished by merely having to bury the innocent animal and say a prayer. No suspension; not even a lunch detention. A seventh grader murdered an innocent creature on school property, and his punishment was giving the animal a proper burial. Just three weeks ago, a high school English teacher arrived at his classroom in the early morning to find the bloody head of a kitten on his doorstep. When he opened his window, he noticed its body laying in the woods with a shovel nearby. My school has done nothing to find the murderer of this kitten. The multiple rumors as to wh decapitated the animal have been ignored, and students have even bragged about killing the cat that had become a regular at classroom windows and water fountains without anyone questioning them. News of the sick and twisted killing brought laughs to most students. There have been many more cases of animal maiming and killing on campus, such as with snakes, foxes, and birds, and all have gone unresearched and ignored.          Last year, tears came to my eyes on many occasions as my geography teacher tod the class of his days working in a butcher shop. He described the slaughter of the chickens, cows, and pigs in the England farm and went so far as to make a joke about the squealing of of the pigs at the site of the butcher's blade. Another day, he somehow began to discuss hunting and the success stories of the students in his class. When one girl asked why they would want to kill "poor deer," the teacher laughed and said that she sounded like one of those "crazy animal rights activists." He then discussed how they would sometimes picket in front of the slaughterhouse and joked about how they actually considered pigs and deer "people."          Now, I know that not everyone is going to agree with animal rights activists. I know there are always going to be people in the world that think killing animals for "sport," entertainment, and food is okay. However, when teachers reenforce these opinions in the minds of vulnerable, ignorant children, a new generation is being created of heartless, savage people who think humans are the only species deserving of painless, peaceful, life on this earth.          A Fund for Animals video called "What's Wrong With Hunting?" features a debate between several high school students over the wrong and "right" sides of hunting. Many of the students argue that they've "never been taught any different" or that "it's a tradition; people have always done it." This reminds us of a quote by Isaac Singer; "People often say that humans have aways (killed) animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times."          Other excuses the students used were that even their teachers "persuade them to continue hunting by not teaching them it's wrong and by putting down animal rights activists." Well, I've had teachers like that, and frankly, I believe that if a teacher is ignorant enough to think that killing animals should be encoraged in school-age children (or anyone, for that matter), they are not in the position to be in charge of educating these people for life. I don't think that any unqualified person, certainly not a child, should be in possession of a weapon powerful enough to kill, let alone in a position in which they are encouraged to do so.          There have been many school shootings recently; Columbine comes to mind, as do the recent shooting sprees in California and Indiana. In all of these cases, parents, teachers, and journalists were quick to jump on the violence in movies, TV, and video games. They blame lack of gun locks and quality family time. Now, these are all valid reasons for so many students being able to pull the trigger so easily, but has anyone researched these disturbed children's past history of gun use? Have any of them ever abused a cat or went ona hunting trip? How many juvenile bomb builders or school-aged gun owners have been told that killing an animal is acceptable -- even applaudable? Better yet, how many grown killers, rapists, or terrorists were taught as children that killing is okay -- so long as the victim is not human? The answer to that, in fact, has been proven, and it is quite startling. A Russian magazine conducted a study on criminals. Out of 135 robbers, rapists, and other criminals, 118 admitted to burning, hanging, and stabbing domestic animals as children.          My accusations might sound slightly harsh. After all, most hunters don't become killers, right? The truth is, all hunters become killers. With their first "prize," be it a squirrel, deer, or dove. Once a human being becomes responsible for intentionally taking another innocent life, that person becomes a killer. There are already killers in our schools, and they haven't uttered a single bomb threat or raised a rifle at a single classmate or teacher. However, they have been taught all their life that killing is okay. Teachers, classmates, parents, and friends have told these kids time and time again that murdering is something to be proud of, even to be rewarded for, when the victim is an innocent animal.          How much longer will school shootings be in the news? As long as violdence is encouraged in movies, games, and schools? As long as guns are in households across America? Well, then it sounds like they'll always be around. Because as long as hunting is passed through the generations, it will have its own movies and games; it will be encouraged in classrooms; it will keep guns in houses everywhere. As long as hunting is okay, murdering will be okay. And I learned that in school.

For years animal research has cured diseases, saved lives, and made medical breakthroughs. Or has it? You just might be suprised to find out what animal research has done. Nothing!           Let's start with a cell's structure. Every animal is different at the molecular level. So are diseases and medications. It's because of that difference that some animals can eat poisonous plants and others can't. It's the same with vaccines, medicines, and even cosmetics.           Some good examples are Penicillin, aspirin, and arsenic. All of us know that Penicillin and aspirin are some of the most helpful medications out there. However, Penicillin will actually kill guinea pigs. And don't think of giving aspirin to your dog or cat. Also, just because a shepp can eat large amounts of arsenics, I sure as heck wouldn't even think of trying it.           Did you know that animal testing is even bad for the environment? Things tested on animals that are "safe for the environment" are actually what is poisoning our food, air, water, etc.           Did you know a baby has a better chance of surviving in twenty-three other countries than in the US? That should tell Americas that our money goes to pointless animal tests (like tests saying that smoking gives you emphysemia, which we already know), instead of clinical testing.           So, what is clinical testing? Clincial testing is testing on humans who have the disease. Then we can't go wrong. There are also other altenatives like tissue samples, mathematical models, and tons of others. For more information on the subject check out the book Sacred Cows and Golden Geese.           So, like the title asks, what has animal research proven? Other than that it is a total wate of time, money, and millions of innocent lives, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

A World Without Hunting

Every year, 200 million innocent lives are taken for fun, and the murderers receive no punishment for it. In fact, the government gives these murderers permission to kill. These murderers like to call themselves hunters -- a word that, for them, brings to mind a fun, macho sport that lets them camp out, learn wildlife respect... Read more

My son was now the youngest fawn in the woods, and I feared every day that the men would come again and snatch his young, carefree life away from him with a single burst of fire and a wicked laugh. And today, they did come. The sound of crunching leaves and hushed whispers as my son pranced in the sunlight told me danger was on its way... Read more

What happened was cold-blooded murder. Imagine being burned, kicked, and thrown around until the pain gets so bad that you can't take it anymore and you just give up. Then, to make it worse, your killer throws your limp body into the dog pen to make it look as though the dogs did it. ... Read more

I know there are always going to be people in the world that think killing animals for "sport," entertainment, and food is okay. However, when teachers reenforce these opinions in the minds of vulnerable, ignorant children, a new generation is being created of heartless, savage people who think humans are the only species deserving of painless, peaceful, life on this earth... Read more

Stop the Cruelty

...And They Suffered No Punishment for It

What has Animal Research Proven?

For years animal research has cured diseases, saved lives, and made medical breakthroughs. Or has it? You just might be suprised to find out what animal research has done. Nothing! Let's start with a cell's structure. Every animal is different at the molecular level. ... Read more

Algebra, Chemistry, and Animal Cruelty

STOP THE CRUELTY! By: Danny Stauffer, KARE member and newsletter author

Algebra, Chemistry, and Animal Cruelty ...are today's students being pushed away from animal rights? By: Brittney Buckley, KARE President and Founder

What has Animal Research Proven? Millions of animals are killed each year for science, but what are their deaths really proving? By: Danny Stauffer, KARE member and newsletter author

...And They Suffered No Punishment For It... An award-winning hunting tale...through the eyes of the prize.

Second-place winner of the Fund for the Animal's 2000 Year of the Humane Child essay contest in the middle school division! See the Fund's online article.

A World Without Hunting This article about the facts of sport hunting has received critical acclaim and appeared in various animal rights publications.

S U B M I T   Y O U R   O W N   A R T I C L E S   T O   K A R E The KARE website and newsletter is open to articles, poems, letters, and stories about animals by anyone who would like to share them. You don't have to be a KARE member to submit your writing, but KARE membership gives you the opportunity to run for KARE office, edit the newsletter, and publish your writing. To submit an article, you can email me at KAREbrittney@yahoo.com or fill out the below form. Be sure to check out the articles above to see what other KARE members have contributed!

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