Finding Paragraph #1

In the cases of animal cruelty it has not just been a single person that made it a big deal, but also how many cases happened in a certain state. For example, "There were 832 cases of animal abuse reported in the year 2009 (in the United States). The states like Florida (68 cases), California (50 cases) and Pennsylvania (51 cases) were leading in cases of animal abuse". The cases in Florida were the highest among all other states in the United States. In each case for animal abuse there were evidence of throwing, beating, kicking, drowning, burning, shooting, bestiality, and hanging. Can you imagine the kind of pain those animals went through- could you say that they would be alright- would you be able to walk away. This relates to my topic because it gives me an exact estimate of how many cases of animal abuse there were in 2009 and it tells me which states had the highest known amount of animal cruelty within them. There are animal cruelty laws in every state, some of the laws have better punishments then other states. For example, in South Carolina a case of animal cruelty the maximum sentence for first offense is "Cruelty: Fine of $100-$500, imprisonment up to 60 days. Torture, Mutilates or Cruelly Kills: Fine of $5000 AND imprisonment of 180 days to 5 years." Another example would be a from the Texas maximum sentence is "Cruelty: Fine up to $4000, imprisonment up to 1 year.
Torture, Kill, Fighting, etc.: Fine up to $10,000, imprisonment from 180 days to 2 years." These punishments are good, but they could be better. It does not give the exact punishment that the criminal deserve for he or she first offense. This relates to my topic because it tells the exact punishment for every state for a first event, also how much a fine would be for abusing an animal.