Letters To Animals Jeremy Rifkin Analysis

16 November 2016

Dear Mr. Rifkin,

Jeremy Rifkin writes an incredible article which is warm hearting and does not go over the top. He states that animals are more like humans and don't get the credit they deserve. He also backs up his evidence not with personal opinion but with facts. He talks about pigs who crave affection, intelligent animals, and devastating tragedies that animals feel when losing one of their own.

Rifkin states that pigs need affection like us. Mcdonald's showed a studies about pigs and how emotionally stressed they can be without social contact. This lead the European Union to outlaw such isolation in pig stalls in 2012. For example if 10 pregnant pigs are put in a stall together they can get mean with each other

The gorilla is capable of learning how to sign just like us humans. Another intelligent animal are Dolphins. Dolphins have been observed to trick their trainers and have their own complete translatable language even if we can't understand what they are saying. Not only that but animals can be quite emotional as well. The grief of a loss offspring from an elephant's shows us that animals do feel pain when something tragic happens. Scientists has had their theory in that animals don't express grief like humans but studies show that elephants have been seen standing next to their dead offspring for days touching them. Donna Fernandes, president of the Buffalo Zoo, tells the story of being at Boston's Franklin Park Zoo ten years ago during the death of Babs, who had died of cancer. She describes seeing the gorilla's longtime mate say good-bye in a way that he was howling and banging his chest. He picked up a piece of celery which was her favorite piece of food and put it in her hand and tried to get her to wake up.

Rifkin's article is very effective because of how emotional it can be to the audience. He shows examples of many animals that will make the reader think twice about how closely they can relate to them.

Eliana