Introduction
Animals live in a moral world hence are morally upright towards other animals. It is the human beings who constantly try to infringe morals on animals. Human beings more often than not abuse the rights of animals, whether domestic or the wild animals, the rights are being abused in several ways.
They use animals for anything that causes pain and suffering such as medical experimentation ,imprisonment in circuses and zoos, fur production amongst many other ways man have found animals useful.
Animal rights are a movement with intention to protect all animals from being abused or exploited by humans. The argument here is simple, animals just like human beings experience pleasure , they have sense of pain and frustrations, they have sensory capacity and as Charles Darwin put it, Animals too have a mind that differs from human beings “in degree and not in kind”.
Tom Regan in this article has clearly demonstrated how human beings have infringed on the rights of animals in the modern day. He narrates the sad story of the whale ,the rabbit and the higher, how workers on board the mother ship of a whaling fleet are disassembling the carcass of a whale, that although the species is protected by the agreement of the member nations of the International Commission.
The three stories illustrated here are very painful and shows how cruel man has treated the animal species. The whale, the higher and the rabbit are stories that reveal the degree of how man disregard animals, a total abuse of the animals rights.
The Use of Ethos, Logos and Pathos in Arguments in Description of Matters
Ethos are used by writers to convince the audience on their character and integrity and in these stories Tom has clearly demonstrated this in his literature by the use of appropriate language to bring clearly the well researched work of literature on the true stories. I find these examples factual. There is also perfect use of grammar to bring the points home.
Tom demonstrates how the animals are being mishandled. He says that “For the calf to produce good meat and attract a large profit, it is left to roam in the most unnatural conditions”.
This is not fare at all as these conditions could even attract diseases. An example of good treatment is when dairy cows are left to listen to music such as country music to be able to produce milk. They should also be grazed in clean conditions unlike the issue of bobby the calf which is so unethical.
Pathos is used by writers to persuade an audience by appealing to their emotions, in this text pathos has been employed by the writer to give evidence for wrong animal treatment. Tom is trying to persuade people to agree with him that these ways are not right at all.
For example, when he says “ The gun roars, the harpoon hurls through the air and the whale line follow, there is a momentary silence, and then the muffled explosion as the time fuse functions…there is now a fight between the mammal and the crew, a fight to death,….For what? To what end? Why is this being done to the last remaining member of an irreplaceable species?”
The writer appeals to the emotion of the audience and creates a sense of sympathy, the tone in the other stories is emotion evoking and you truly sympathize with the animals.
That because the rabbits do not have tear duct therefore, a Draize test is used and a routinely concentrated solution of a substance are left to drip into one of the eyes and the other eyes is used as control. The swelling, redness and destruction of the iris or cornea loss of vision are measured the substance eye irritancy is established,
Logos is used in actions where there is need to convince the audience on a matter being discussed. It is used in citing statistics, facts, literal analogies and historical happenings. It can also be used in the citation of particular authorities on a subject. It is the act by which the thoughts are expressed.
People do have inward thoughts that are better expressed in this manner. At times some people involved in activities that they believe are right. It is only others who could be having a right perspective of what other people are doing that are not right.
In Tom Regan’s article, there is the use of Logos in justifying that what human beings are doing by inflicting pain on the animals is not right. For example, in the issue of the rabbit being used in the research in the science. Though this will help out in knowing the effects on the final users, it is not being done in the right way. By subjecting the rabbits to too much pain is not ethical at all.
These animals should be handled in humility and with care to cater for their existence. Even if they are to die at least some sort of good handling methods should be accorded to them. Reagan says that “The animals are harmed without restriction, they are also made to endure pain even to death and therefore, their welfare is not checked.”
“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, and he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals”. ~George Orwell, Animal Farm.
Works Cited
Regan, Tom. Human Wrongs Animal Rights: Introduction to Moral Philosophy. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.