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Madelyn Eisenbart

Marcum

ERWC

30 September 2016

Moral Limits

In Jeremy Rifkin's article, A Change of Heart About Animals, he explains that through

research scientists discovered that most animals are similar to humans by proclaiming they have

basic emotions and necessary skills. Rifkin uses rhetoric to engage our emotions and persuade

our view on animal rights. He mentions animal depression and animal rights and essentially is

attempting to mortify his audience. I believe animals deserve to be treated fairly however, I don't

think they need given rights to live accordingly.

In the article, Rifkin states that big fast food companies, like McDonald's, have funded

research on animal emotions. Research has found that animals crave affection and are easily

depressed if isolated or denied play time with each other.(4) With this information, Rifkin

expands to the ideas of the way animals are treated and whether they deserve their own moral

rights or not. An outside article states Animals feel, therefore they should have rights.(stanford

university); because animals don't physically contribute to society and legal government issues,

they should not have their own rights. Morally, animal abuse is discredited which, unless you are

obnoxiously ignorant, should be a natural apprehension. Even if animals had their own rights,

how would they express them? They don't all have human communication skills so they can't
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specifically say what they want, need or even feel. Human manipulation on animals is not always

built on pure anger of their actions, it can be based off our own survival.

There is no doubt that animals are different than us humans; no matter how much

investment to research is made, our advancement of our knowledge will never expand fully

because animals cannot communicate with us directly. Animals deserve to be treated fairly, but

they do not need their own rights to survive. If someone wants to see a change in animal

treatment, all they are able to do is change themselves.

Citation:

Wilcox, Barbara. "History of the Human-animal Relationship Is Key to Nature Preservation, Stanford

Scholar Says." Stanford News. N.p., 25 Mar. 2015. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.