Jasmine was the victim of an abusive situation, but her new pet parents have turned that negative into a positive. Today, we’ll learn more about Jasmine's new life in this edition of Pet Pointers.

When little Jasmine was just a puppy she was abused and kicked, which caused severe damage to her spine leaving her unable to use her legs. Before her cart was donated, Jasmine dragged her lower body along using just her front paws. But her unfortunate situation and sad past has not left Jasmine bitter. She now helps to educate children about animal abuse with the help of her new mom, Dee Schaefer.

Schaefer said, "Jasmine is my humane education partner. We go to schools in the area and talk to kids about animal abuse and neglect, about how animal abuse relates to human bullying, but also how a after an animal is abused can be very adaptable and show love to that person that adopts them and to other people."

Last year in the United States there were over 1,000 documented cases of animal cruelty with more than 400 of those being neglect or abandonment cases. Many times people are inexperienced pet owners and do not understand how to properly care of their pets or people don’t know they are breaking the law by abandoning a pet or failing to provide food, water and shelter.

The best thing you can do is if you see abuse report it to your local animal shelter, animal control officer or police department and help teach kids to be kind to animals and any cruelty or abuse is unacceptable.

Abused animals come into shelters every day and need caring forever homes.

Visit www.wanderersrest.org and www.petfinder.com for more information.