Harsher Punishment for Animal Abusers

My opponent makes the claim for the debate that "there should be more harsh punishments for animal abuse" and goes on to add that "the punishment for abusing an animal should be the same as that of abusing a child. " and offers the following for reasoning. 1) The punishment for child abusers should be the same as the one for animal abusers. Soo. .. you think that people should be incarcerated for the so called crime of "animal cruelty? " I would have to disagree and point out the differences between abusing an animal and abusing a child. 1) Uh. .. Children are human beings. We do not need to treat animals the same way we treat each other. Even though I would never beat a dog for no reason, I certainly would not send someone to jail for doing so either. The reason being that humans are more important than animals. 2) The life a human is and always will be more significant than the life of an animal and thus should be treated with differently. Killing an innocent child will get you life in jail. Killing a puppy won't, and I would like to keep it that way, not to defend those who kill animals, but because I can see the difference between killing human and an animal. 2) Animals have no voice: they are helpless and defenseless. An animal cannot pick up a phone and dial 911. Simply put, an animal is not and should never be, equal to a human. We are the dominant species, we rule the Earth, we are in control of their population, we eat animals for the simple reason that they taste good, not that we need it to survive. Again, I do not condone the abuse of an animal, but animals are below us. We are the natural predators of the world. I know that you would not say "kill the bears, they are too mean to the deer. " The bear gets to do whatever he wants to the deer, it is nature's cycle. The difference in humans is that we have MORALS and I morally choose not to abuse animals. However, I understand the difference between a bear and a deer, and if one did not share the same moral standard that I have, it is their right as the dominant species to do whatever they want. You also make the comparison of my younger brother or sister being beaten, would I sit back? Absolutely not I would not sit back. But that comparison is laughable. You just changed the whole debate using that comparison. The debate is not about humans, its about animals. Humans treat humans equally because we ARE equal. Again, me and a filthy animal that eats its own excrement are not equal. We need to protect each other as the same specie, not animals that have no awareness of its own existence. So whether or not it has a voice to ask for help is rather irrelevant to that actuality of animals deserving that same rights as a human. 3) Animal abuse is inhumane. No, child abuse is inhuman. There is nothing humanly empathetic about an animal being abused. Using this "animal abuse = to child abuse" argument is pretty convoluted. Do not compare an animal of literally no worth to humans, to a human of worth to humans. It isn't even worth that is the problem with this argument. CHILDREN ARE NOT A DIFFERENT SPECIES THAN ADULTS. I was once a child, I can relate to a child, a child with morals and thoughts being abused is repulsive, an animal being abused is sympathetic, but again a worthless comparison. Also, your logic is very circular here. Its inhumane because its evil and its evil because its mean and its mean because its bad and its bad because its inhumane. Give me a real reason WHY I should care about an animal. Why should I care as the dominant species whether an animal is being abused? Animals will never deserve the same respect as a human. Let me say it again, that animal and I are not equals. I get to say whether an animal dies at the benefit to my convenience every time I buy fast food. Why are we so caught up in whether or not animals are being treated fairly? Screw animals, there are human beings starving to death in America and children being abused in their homes, and we are worried about animals? How about moving in a direction to help your fellow man instead of only concentrating on the "injustices done to poor innocent animals. " Let's get a hold on how human beings are being abused by human beings, and once that is remotely fixed, then we can come back to whether animal cruelty should be stopped by increasing the penalties. For now, however, animals < humans.