This is the first of eight write-ups from freshman students at Manual Arts High School. Some participated in weeks-long projects about animal abuse, drugs, gangs, prostitution and racism. Part of their projects included surveys they created for their communities. After they gathered information, all of the groups presented their findings at a school presentation. Two days later, each group wrote about their experiences during an Intersections mentoring and writing workshop.

We chose to research animal abuse because we care that animals cannot stand up for themselves, unless a person speaks for them. We also chose to research this topic to help people see how badly others treat animals and that everyone needs to help stop animal abuse. It is necessary for factories to stop using hormones, mistreating animals and overfeeding them. We want to create harsher laws against the use of hormones in animals we eat. Dog fighting, and other forms of animal abuse, should also stop.

We believe that when animals are abused, it is similar to abusing a family member. That is what one teacher at Manual Arts High School said when we interviewed her and asked, “How would you feel if you saw an animal being abused?”

Our group also surveyed 238 students, went to 13 classrooms and interviewed five others. We asked, “Have you ever seen a dog or cockfight?” One person said yes, that he also bet on the fight. He said it was worth his money. It is important to have more economic resources in our community, just so people will stop trying to make money off of breeding and fighting animals.

We also asked, “Have you ever abused an animal?” One of the members of our group chose that question because he knows some people who abuse their animals. When we heard that, we felt mad because some people just act as if killing animals and hurting one another is fun or normal. More than half of the people we interviewed have witnessed animal abuse. We discovered that most people are against animal abuse, but there are also some who said they would not help the fight against it.

Overall, this topic was important to us because we see that people take advantage of animals for their own gain. Cruelty to animals is the infliction of harm or suffering for a purpose other than self defense.