Summary Of A Change Of Heart About Animals

In his article “A Change of Heart about Animals,” Rifkin points out that “ they feel pain, suffer, and experience stress, affection, excitement and even love--- and these findings are changing how we view animals.” Currently people are treating animals with disrespect by abusing , eating them , and slaughtering them. Rifkins point of view is to catch people's attention to change their attitude towards animal abuse so that we can think twice about animal cruelty. He states that animals have the similar intelligence as us human beings.

Animal rights has been a long-debated topic that continues to cause controversy over many things in society today. For a long time, there have been people who believed that animals should be treated more fairly, if not treated equally, to humans. While animals cannot speak and have been a main food source for thousands of years, some people believe they are not meant to be food. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is one of the largest animal rights activist groups in the world. They have been known to publicly make statements directed towards a specific person or group, without directly saying the name of the targeted person or group.

In his book Practical Ethics, Peter Singer defends a pro-animal argument. The goal of the argument is not to lower the status of humans, but to elevate the status of animals. He compares the belief that humans should always take precedence over issues about animals to the prejudice of slave owners against their slaves. He states that it is easy to look back and criticize the prejudices of the people who lived back then, but it is much harder to criticize ourselves, our beliefs, and whatever prejudices we may hold and actually try to change them.

In section 3. Why Animalism is Unpopular, of “An Argument for Animalism,” Eric Olson argues that animalism is unpopular amongst contemporary philosophers. Animalism, according to Olson, is a theory that humans are numerically identical to animals (“An Argument for Animalism”, 610). This means that there is a particular human organism and that organism is you; the human organism and you are one in the same. When thinking about personal identity, Olson reasons that contemporary philosophers don’t ask what kind of things we are.

Ethics are “rules” or guidelines that people should follow. In the veterinary world the ethics are set by the AVMA and by NAVTA. Ethics are set up to have members of a Veterinary staff to have high standards and good moral consciousness. NAVTA is organization that stands for the National Association Veterinary Technicians in America. NAVTA has a code of ethics that focuses on both practicing medicine and protecting the profession.

Animal Cruelty I’m against animal cruelty; the attachment I have towards animals is unstoppable i’ll be with them all day. It comes to the point when I hear the news or look at social media where a dog was being kicked and chained up I get so emotional I can’t even watch the whole video. I’ll break into tears and anger because nobody stops the person. The person then continues kicking and laughing as if it was enjoyable for them. I wonder to myself “why do these heartless animal lovers buy dogs just to hurt them?

Animal welfare has been a controversial subject in recent years. Nowadays, consumers are placing more attention to their consumption of animal product. The fact that there are diverse consumers with dissimilar perspectives on the meat industry makes animal welfare a complex international public policy controversy that also needs to take economical, scientific, cultural and ethical dimensions into consideration. The government can change the consumption behavior of the consumers and the production process of livestock by intervening the market using a ‘carrot’ approach so that the price system will lead the society to an efficient outcome of animal welfare. Since animal welfare is an increasing concern, numerous countries are reconsidering the way animal welfare is embedded in legislation for housing and care of animals.

In Michael Pollan’s article, he addresses the topic as to whether or not it is morally right to consume animals. Pollan’s opinion towards consuming animals is pretty explicit in the beginning. He saw no harm in consuming animals, but his opinion started to change after reading Peter Singer’s book, “Animal Liberation”. While reading through the book, Pollan learns that eating animals, wearing animals, experimenting on animals, and killing animals for clothing are all viewed as “speciesism”. He quotes, “speciesism”- a neologism I had encountered before only in jokes- as a form of discrimination as indefensible as racism or anti-Semitism”.

Animal rights and livestock farming Many of us, nowadays, eat and enjoy eating meat but many would agree that this is actually not an ethical action. Michael Pollan, in his persuasive style article “An Animal's Place" published in The New Work Times Magazine, on November 10, 2002 intends to persuade his audience that humans should respect animals and as long as they are treated well in farms and give them a more peaceful life and death it will be fine to eat them. According to Pollan, in today's huge industrial farms, cruel and unbearable things happen that are against animals rights. There is a high possibility that in the future these actions will stop as already some protest for animal rights have begun, because animals have feelings and farms take advantage of them thinking that they are mere machines, making them suffer. The solution to this conflict according to the author who supports friendly farms that respect and give a fun and secure life for animals.

The seven commandments are the laws of Animalism simplified into seven statements, and written on the barn for every animal to see. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. This commandment is so no human can take control of the farm again.

In An Animal’s Place, Michael Pollan describes the growing acknowledgement of animal rights, particularly America’s decision between vegetarianism and meat-eating. However, this growing sense of sentiment towards animals is coupled with a growing sense of brutality in farms and science labs. According to Pollan, the lacking respect for specific species of animals lies in the fact that they are absent from human’s everyday lives; enabling them to avoid acknowledgment of what they are doing when partaking in brutality towards animals. He presents arguments for why vegetarianism would make sense in certain instances and why it would not and ultimately lead to the decision of eating-meat while treating the animals fairly in the process. Pollan

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.