Animals feel pain and should be treated with respect, just like you and me. In some countries, anyone that deliberately beats, injures, or slaughters animals in a way that makes them suffer can be charged with animal cruelty.
The definition of animal cruelty varies from country to country. In Hong Kong, for example, under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance, the act of neglecting, putting animals into a extremely confined space, and deliberately making animals fight one another are all illegal.
Penalties to punish animal abusers also differ depending on the country. In Hong Kong, offenders can face a maximum fine of HK$200,000 and a maximum prison term of three years.
There are some very controversial examples of animal abuse. Sometimes animal cruelty can be embedded in a culture. Often the tradition has been practised for so long that the group can't even tell that their ritual is a form of animal cruelty. We look at some examples:
Bullfighting
Bullfighting is an iconic activity in Spain. In a traditional Spanish bullfight, a matador (the leading bullfighter) and a team of six people work to defeat a bull in an arena in front of a crowd of spectators. Yet by 'defeat', we mean to kill. The team repeatedly stab the bull - first with a man on horseback using a spear, then men with three barbed sticks. The time taken between each wounding weakens the bull as it runs around bleeding. Finally it is stabbed in the heart by the matador using a sword.
If the matador has performed well, the crowd waves white handkerchiefs to permit him to cut off one or both of the bull's ear.