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For my project, I chose to take photos of my cat, Otis. Before it seems too obvious that I chose a very easy subject, I want to stress that I started to think of other projects to talk about political positions. I settled on my cat because the background of how I got him can be seen from a political point of view.

Photo from ASPCA, aspca.org
Many organizations such as the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) work tirelessly to rescue animals from terrible conditions like dogfighting, puppy mills, hoarding, and other cruelty situations. they provide animals medical care and behavioural rehabilitation, and the like.
There have many situations where people feel the need to have pets but instead of taking on the responsibility, they abuse and neglect them. There have been countless tales, television shows, and social media streams to bring attention of the victims of the terrible acts their humans have done.
I rescued Otis from Animal Friends located just outside of Pittsburgh. They didn’t have a detailed backstory on him except a woman had found him around her neighborhood a month prior and took care of him until there was a space for him. They predicted that he was 2 years old. Based on the lack of evidence surrounding his circumstances, it was assumed he was a stray for most of his life.
When he came home with me, I was prepared by Animals Friends that I was to give him space until he got used to me and his new surroundings. They also told me that as a stray, he would take longer than normal to acclimate to being an indoor cat. However, it only took him a week for him to get used to everything. He only had a few traits of what strays typically have in the beginning.
He had food insecurity, and he was uncomfortable when I touched his food bowl. He was non-aggressive about it, he would only gently move my hand away with his head. He also has difficulty having any closed doors in the apartment. Those were typical traits from a stray cat in a new environment. However, he has other behaviors that aren’t associated with strays.
Action has started to be taken against Animal abusers. In January 2019, a bipartisan bill was introduced to Congress that would make animal cruelty a felony across the United States. (Robinson, 2019)
This new law called the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act (PACT Act) will build on the existing law from 2010 that criminalizes making and distributing videos that depicted animal torture and death. (Robinson, 2019).
While the 2010 law targeted the documentation of such acts, the new PACT act bill targets the act themselves. Anyone convicted of intentionally crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, impaling, or otherwise seriously harming an animal would face federal felony charges, fines, and up to seven years in prison. (Chokshi, 2019)

Photo from NC STATE University Libraries lib.ncsu.edu
It was becoming clearer to me and several other people who got to know Otis that he wasn’t a stray cat that was picked up from the street. He’s an incredibly people-friendly cat. He never shies away from strangers, even if there are a lot of people in the room. He’s litter-trained, he doesn’t shy away from the brush or the nail clippers.
I had a friend, who’s a veterinarian, explain to me that his behavior is typically from a cat who’s been abandoned by its owner. One of the biggest indicators is separation anxiety. Separation anxiety is triggered when animals become upset because of separation from their guardians, the people they’re attached to.
He has terrible separation anxiety from me. Whenever I leave a room to go in the next, he has to follow me and ‘guard’ the area. Guarding is when an animal puts its back to you and faces outside the room in the doorway. He does it everywhere, the bedroom, the office, the bathroom, the kitchen, and even the front door of the apartment when he hears my neighbors walking up the stairs.
While I don’t know the details of whether he was abandoned intentionally or not, I’m happy he’s in my life now. I continue to learn more about his behaviors and how to better help him deal with his triggers.
It’s my hope that more and more animals have success stories like Otis and that their abusers are brought to justice to the fullest extent of the law.

References:
ASPCA. (online) secure.aspca.org
Chokshi, N. “There’s No Federal Ban on Animal Cruelty. Lawmakers want to change that” (2019, January 30). web.archive.org/web/20190201182025/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/us/animal-cruelty-bill-felony.html.
Robinson, A. “Animal Cruelty Legislation, Part 1” (2019, February 26). lib.ncsu.edu.news/special-collections/animal-cruelty-legislation-part-i.