Introduction

We wanted to know why there is such a thing as cruelty to animals because we think it is making more animals endangered.  We wanted to find out if we could give people who are cruel to animals a fine or put them in jail. We think that most people think cruelty to animals is bad. These are our research questions.

* Could we fine or put the people in jail who are cruel to animals? * Why do you think this? * Why are people cruel to animals? * How can we stop cruelty to animals? * How will the animals survive? * Do you think it is good to be cruel to animals?

Methodology

We wanted to ask two people from animal charities what they think. We chose phone interviews because it was easier for us and the animal charities because the nearest centre is in a different town. In the end we only had time to ask one animal charity. We chose a one question questionnaire and ballot box to collect our data because it would be easier for the teacher to read the question out to the younger children. We chose a ballot box so that it was easier to collect the answers and also so that people wouldn’t copy  and their answers would be anonymous. We used the same question for every person because it would be fair because everyone would get the same question so they would be ok with it. If it wasn’t fair you would get loads of different questions and then you’d get loads of different answers and you wouldn’t be able to count them all up and it would get confusing. We also wanted to ask Class 2 and Class 6 what they think because they are the oldest classes in Key Stages 1 and 2.

We did a pilot of our questionnaire and found that two of our questions were not very clear so we improved them. To make it ethical we made the questions simple and kept the answers anonymous. We sent a ballot box with one questionnaire for each person to Class 2 and Class 6.

The questionnaire had one question and each person had to put a circle round the answer they agreed with and then put it in the ballot box. We asked them if they think it is good to be cruel to animals.

Findings

Class 2 and Class 6 questionnaire

Is it good to be cruel to animals?

We found out that all of Class 2 did not think it was good to be cruel to animals. We found out that one person in Class 6 thought it was good to be cruel to animals.

We asked an animal charity our questions

1.  Could we fine or put the people in jail who are cruel to animals?
2.  Why do you think this?

They told us that this does happen and people can go to jail for up to six months and get a fine of up to £5,000.  A new law will happen soon that means people could go to jail for up to 51 weeks and get a fine of up to £20,000.

3. Why are people cruel to animals?

Some people are cruel on purpose because they have power over animals and the animals are defenceless. Sometimes people don’t know how to feed or look after animals properly.

4. How can we stop cruelty to animals?

By teaching people how to look after animals properly and that it is illegal to be cruel. The Police and RSPCA investigate cruelty and try to stop it.

5. How will the animals survive?

When animals have been mistreated lots of animal charities try and get them back to being fit and healthy but sometimes they don’t survive. Lots of animals are becoming endangered because their habitats are running out because people are building houses on them.

Discussion

When we counted up the answers to the questionnaire we got a different number back to how many children were in the class. We thought this might have been because we miscounted. We also thought there might have been someone there on the day of the survey who was not there when we asked how many people were in the class. We thought there could have been one extra person or one away or the teachers could have joined in with the class.

We expected to find that people think cruelty to animals is bad  but one person disagreed. We think they might have said this because they were mucking about or they might have said it because we have too many animals and we have to kill them or we need them for food or clothes. Sometimes people stop animals from suffering rather than letting them live. It’s a bit cruel and a bit not because people don’t want to hurt the animals but they  need to help people live. We learnt about this from Group 3’s research.

Our research question has been answered. Doing this research has taught us that people have different views and that cruelty means enjoying causing animals unnecessary pain.

Conclusion

If we could do our research all over again we would improve it by  making sure that we can get hold of the animal charities more easily. We could collect more data by asking more classes. We could also change the question.