Rifkin Animal Abuse

I honestly think that Jeremy Rifkin had some very significant findings when he published “A Change of Heart about Animals”. If it wasn't for Rifkin many people like myself would have not known that animals share some of the same traits as humans like grief, self awareness, and the need for affection. Everyone needs to know that animals aren't some type of toy but rather a living creature with feelings. Rifkin wants his readers to believe that humans and animals are much alike and want some of the same rights for them but is that a good idea…

In the article “A Change of Heart About Animals”, Rifkin asserts that humans are treating animals in the most atrocious way, and he claims that in order for their lives to improve, we need to definitely adjust ours. He uses great amount of logos, and several experiments done with different animals and tries his best to closely relate animals to us, humans. Rifkin although, never inserts a call for action to this problem throughout his article. Instead, he puts the emphasis on the pathos of the argument. In the world we are living in today, there is about 8.7 million different living species. Whether they are land or marine animals, they do play a big role in our community such as being apart of the food pyramid, assisting handicapped people wherever they go, or being a transportation for people living on farms and fields. With this being said, the ranking of animals in our community has brought up a heated argument in connection to their rights and welfare. Eight legged, four legged, or two legged land or sea animals do not comprehend the concept of rights. If we, humans, give animals “rights”, we are basically inferring the fact that we are like animals, and they have the entitlement to share our rights. Although they don’t understand rights, the fact that many of these animals are being treated inhumanely is wrong and animal welfare should be ingrained into this community rather than the massive inhumane treatment.

“For most humans, especially for those in modern urban and suburban communities, the most direct form or contact with non-human animals is at meal time: we eat them. This simple fact is the key to what each one of us can do about changing these attitudes. The use and abuse of animals raised for food far exceeds, in sheer numbers of animals affected, any other kind of mistreatment” (Coats). The most effective method to stop this cruelty is to learn about where the meat comes from, by supporting the organic and family farms which will ultimately lead to the reducing the amount of animals that have to suffer (PETA). More than 95 percent of animal abuse in America occurs in the meat packing industry (Harper & Low). Animals suffer an unimaginable amount, they are raised to be killed, then bought and then consumed. In order to help fight back against the abuse, there needs to be a cut back on the amount of meat or poultry that is consumed. Seriously consider the option of becoming a vegetarian; by not eating meat, you completely stop supporting animal

Rifkin states that “The current studies open up a new phase, allowing us to expand and deepen our empathy to included the border community with whom we share the earth with”. As evidence there are so many new studies about animals and how they all feel and think so now that we all know that they do, why keep keep hurting them? Just because a fish can’t tell you they are feeling the pain people are causing them or show emotion , doesn’t make it okay to do it. Animals do think, I wonder what they think of us. In an article telegraph discusses a topic about four teens that stole a dog from his home and tortured it for hours in one of the most worst cases an RSPCA inspector had ever seen."These youths admitted feeding him drugs, kicking and punching him, and wringing and breaking his neck before dumping him”. The four teens were given 12 months probation and are not allowed to have any pets for 5 years and were given a fee. That was all that was given to the teens after they did cruel stuff to that poor dog. Animals should have animal rights because cases like these are not acceptable or right.

Remember Cecil the Lion? A lot of people were shocked, even outraged, when they heard about his death at the hands of an American hunter in 2015. The response to the lion’s death was so strong that the guy who shot Cecil basically went into hiding until he issued an apology. Our society reacts with horror when we hear about a majestic lion being shot or sacks of kittens being tossed into rivers, or owners training their dogs to fight each other for sport. However, what is the difference between killings Cecil and killing a duck, deer, cow, pig, or a chicken? How do we reconcile the strong feelings many of us have about certain animals, mainly the cute ones like kittens and puppies, with the way we actual use animals in our own lives?

In other words, Rifkin believes we need to stop abusing animals and start thinking how animals feel. Animals feel love, Experience stress. Everyone needs to realize we need to stop mistreating animals and come to the fact that they feel what we do.

The act showed us all the worst of humanity, some thing animal lovers have seen all too often when day after day another horrid poacjhing story unfolds.

Over 56 billion animals, not even including fish or sea creatures, are killed by humans a year. Over 10 billion of these animals are raised in harmful conditions to later end up slaughtered. For some reason, people think that the situation changes when it comes to animals, but it doesn’t. Yes, meat and dairy are pretty important for our health. Not only are we killing this many animals, but most don’t even die peacefully. With this, animals should at least be able to have a quick death if they are being killed to feed us rather than tortured.

Once the whole world can adopt this attitude, treating living and nonliving things as if it possesses this immense amount of worth, treating them become easier. In the video, Food Inc. The chickens were just throw out once they died and they didn’t think twice about it. The cows were harmed and were used as a tool for humans. If we adopt this way of thinking, we will think twice about our actions. There will be many obstacles. However, slowly change can be made. For example, the sale of organic food is one of the fastest growing sectors of the food industry. This demonstrates that humans are slowly seeing the inherent value in animals and the

Animal abuse and neglect happens everywhere. Different states are trying to crack down on different facilities and expose them as to how they are treating animals when they're about to be slaughtered. This article “States Target Against Animal-Rights Activists With Law Banning Undercover Videos” by Tennille Tracy (2015) talks about going undercover into different facilities seeing how they handle animals. She talks about how companies ship meat from and abused and neglected animal. Videos and footage reveal how the person was treating the animal and its evidence that will be used in court for the person to serve jail time or has to pay a fine.

Animals have been around longer than humans, therefore they were not put on this earth to serve and provide for us. Animal Experimentation and “Sport” Hunting are two main unnecessary forms of animal cruelty put upon defenseless animals. Animals feel everything that is done to them, just like if it was a person someone was experimentation on or hunting. The only difference is that they have no voice to object. People are using hunting as an excuse to keep animal population down, but if that's really the case then there are non-lethal methods that can be used instead. The demand for meat is so high now that people will inject animals with drugs to make them grow fatter, faster. Factories should be checked daily with a list of obligations they

Ever since I was a little girl I loved animals. One of my favorite things to do was to spend the day at the zoo or visit an aquarium where I would have the chance to see some of my favorite animals. Each time I would go there it would be a breath-taking experience. Watching wild animals from up close, see them interacting with each other was just amazing to me. But as I got older I started realizing that it doesn’t matter how much I am pleased to be able to see these animals through a glass or cage, it is not natural, it is not the way they would choose to live if they had a say. We humans, unfortunately, have the cruelty to capture these animals from their natural habitats, against their own will, and separate them from their families for

“People have different feelings for animals; many look upon animals as companions while others view animals as a means for advancing medical techniques or furthering experimental research” (“Save the Animals”), or simply as food. People complain about the way they have been treated by other people on a daily basis. Though, they treat an animal who cannot speak for themselves, just as poor as they had been treated, if not worse. Even though, animals feel every emotion a human being feels according to many different studies. So why treat them any less than our neighbors? As the article by Andrea Nolan states, there has been a growing global effort to raise awareness of feelings in animals.

Slaughterhouses are the cheapest ways for humans to get meat. Rather than paying large sums of money to put the animals down humanely, they are just murdered. Animals are separated in slaughterhouses from their families after being with them for weeks. Imagine one never getting to know his mother, then being ripped away from their child, while trying to manage to survive.Animals should have rights just like humans do. Animals’ hearts beat just like any human’s.If animals have to be raised and die, they should not suffer. Most animal's natural instincts are to protect their children, and that is ripped away from them with their

Imagine a world where thousands of animals are being killed by vegetarians and vegans. Well, guess what? You live in that world. People become vegetarian or vegan for many reasons. One of them is to ‘spare the lives of animals’, but by estimate “…300 animals per acre—including mice, rats, moles, groundhogs, and birds—are killed for the production of vegetable and grain foods, often in gruesome ways.” We may not like these animals very much but we’re still killing them. Even if they’re not as obvious as pigs, chickens, or cows. Whereas only one animal is killed to produce grass-fed beef and no lives are taken for milking a dairy cow. "What is it that makes it OK to kill animals of the field so that we can eat [vegetables or fruits] but not pigs or chickens or cows?"