Day 162: If I Ruled Lichtenstein... Animal Abuse Would Be Severely Punished

Adopting my dog, Chloe, was one of the best decisions I've ever made. She's a constant companion who's always up for snuggling, playing, and giving lick-kisses.

Pets in general have such amazing feel-good powers, and all they ask for in return is nourishment and love. This is why my heart breaks every time either my vet or I have to do something that I know is completely harmless to Chloe – like clip her toenails, give her medicine, or go anywhere near her rear end – because she does not take it well. I’ve actually fought back tears in the waiting room at the vet’s office listening to her howl when the vet examines her, which leads us both to believe that she may have been abused in her past.

And I can see other instances where abuse in her past would make sense. I can’t yell at her when she misbehaves, like when she eats – yes, literally eats – the carpet, unless I want to clean up the piddle she’ll undoubtedly make on the floor. And she’s afraid of everything loud noise related, whether it’s coming from the thunderstorm, a movie soundtrack, or the vacuum cleaner.

If I ever had the misfortune to meet the person who’s caused these fears I fear the amount of damage I would inflict upon him or her. Before I adopted her, I asked the woman at the shelter what she knew about her, since Chloe had been at the shelter for a month before I brought her home. All she said was, “Chloe just needs someone to love her.” I have found that to be unequivocally true.

While I’ll never say that it’s never OK to beat an animal (because I absolutely would if said animal had some part of my child in its mouth, for example), 99.9 percent of the time, animal abuse is unwarranted. Animals can’t understand us the way humans can, so most of the time it’s not their fault if they misbehave; it’s a product of bad training or cruel owners.

And yet animal abuse is still is an all-too-common occurrence, and the penalties are all too slap-on-the-wrist in severity. Not in Lichtenstein. The penalties in Lichtenstein are going to be the same for animals as it is for people. Beating a pet is going to carry the same amount of charges as beating a spouse because a dog can’t call for help or grab car keys and drive away. Dogs just have to endure the abuse and hope one day it stops. This infuriates me almost more than anything else in this world.

And in my country, it will not be tolerated. Not in my country.