Domestication of Animals

Some animals just dont mind domestication. In a passage from The Omnivores
Dilemma on pages 319-321, Michael Pollan describes scenes of animals at Polyface farm
and informs the audience about the benefits of domestication of animals. Using ethos,
pathos, and logos, Pollan defends domestication of animals and explains how it can
contribute to animal happiness as long the animals are treated well, while also establishing
an informative and sometimes sarcastic tone.
Pollans use of ethos makes his ideas in the passage more credible and supports his
argument. In the first paragraph of the section Animal Happiness, he describes optimal
conditions for animals living spaces, saying Im thinking of the hens I saw at Polyface
Farm, fanning out over the cow pasture on a June morning, pecking at the cowpats and the
grass, gratifying their every chicken instinct (319). The way he uses his own personal
experiences to support his idea of what a good farm is makes this a good example of ethos.
It also makes his argument more agreeable, since he actually went to the farm and saw
these scenes for himself. He also continues to describe his view on the farm, saying ...the
image of pig happiness I witnessed in that cattle barn in March, watching the hogs, all
upturned pink hams and corkscrew tails, nosing their way through that deep cake of
compost in search of alcoholic morsels of corn (319). Along with making his argument
more credible, these two quotes also contain imagery of the farm, supporting his purpose of
showing that animals can be happy living by domestication. The use of some words like
gratifying and upturned pink hams, give off positive connotations and helps the reader
visualize the happy lives of these animals. Then he uses another example of ethos when he
says In the same way we can probably recognize animal suffering when we see it, animal
happiness is unmistakable, too, and during my week on the farm I saw it in abundance
(319). Saying that he was there to witness the happiness shows that he can make an
argument about the subject and know what he is talking about, since he has seen it before.
Pollans visit to the farm provides him with ethos and credibility for his writing.
Through pathos, Pollan tries to appeal to the audiences emotions in order to help
them understand his point of view by using tone. While addressing a counter argument,
Pollan says To many animal people even Polyface Farm is a death camp-a way station for
doomed creatures awaiting their date with the executioner (319). By saying to many
animal people, Pollans insulting tone is shown through the way he looks down on those
kind of people. Also, putting death camp in quotations shows that he is being sarcastic
and mocking people who think that. Using this tone, Pollan causes the audience to also look
down on those kind of people and agree with him. He also insults the animal people again
by saying the animal rightists betray a deep ignorance about the workings of nature (320).
This is also another example of pathos used to make the audience agree with him by
insulting other people. Then, he says that Liberation is the last thing such a creature
wants to kind of surprise the audience, since many people believe that animals do not like
to be confined (320). However, he cant stop himself from insulting the animal rightists again
by stating right after that Which might explain the contempt many animal people display
toward domesticated species (320). He also helps support domestication by saying that
saying that the life of freedom is to be preferred betrays an ignorance about chicken
preferences that, around his place at least, revolve around not getting ones head bitten off
by a weasel (321). Using his sarcastic tone and that sort-of-joke at the end helps the
audience understand the chickens point of view. With his pathos, Pollan leads his audience
toward supporting his arguments by using his inspiring passages.
Using logos, Pollan develops an informative tone while relaying info to support his
argument. He reasons that To think of domestication as a form of slavery or even
exploitation is to misconstrue that whole relationship- to project a human idea of power onto
what is in fact an example of mutualism or symbiosis between species (320). This means
that the people who disagree with domestication are not understanding how it works to help
the animal and the person. He then lists the way that domestication is an example of
mutualism by stating, Humans provided the animals with food and protection in exchange
for which the animals provided the humans their milk, eggs, and -yes- their flesh (320).
This use of evidence helps make his argument more reasonable. He also uses deductive
reasoning to support that domestication is beneficial to animals by saying cows, pigs, dogs,
cats, and chickens have thrived, while their wild ancestors have languished and then backs
it up with research, saying There are ten thousand wolves left in North America and fifty
million dogs (320). This shows that under humans, domesticated animals survive more and
are protected from the dangers of the wilderness. These examples of logos are all stated
using an informative or formal tone while listing good arguments why domestication is
helpful to animals.
Throughout this passage Pollan makes a reasonable argument to support
domestication in good farms. Using ethos, pathos, and logos, he manipulates the audience
into supporting his ideas. At the end, everyone will end up agreeing with him, except for
animal people who will probably just get offended.