CRITICAL ANALYSIS

A Change of Heart about Animals

A Change of Heart about Animals

Introduction

For many years there have been debates on the subject of human treatment towards animals. The study of animals and their behavior require that we experiment on them. Thus, recent findings come to light with these experiments conducted in the laboratories. Jeremy Rifkin writes "A Change of Heart about Animals," a 2003 editorial in the Los Angeles Times. Jeremy Rifkin is the author of The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era. In his article, he presents the scientific discoveries about the behavior of animals and similarities between animals and humans. Towards the end, he poses the question raised many times earlier that whether or not the findings of the numerous experiments conducted so far justify the treatment that these animals receive during these experiments. He wants to change how people have traditionally viewed animals by creating their link with humans.

Critical Analysis

The author's main claim is that animals have feelings, emotions and intelligence like humans. He makes use of scientific studies that have proven the similarities of animals with that of humans. The implication of his argument is to provoke the thought among all his readers whether or not the experiments of this sort should be continued. I will analyze this article point by point.

The author's first point is to prove that animals and humans are alike in that animals also have conceptual abilities. He illustrates his point by giving examples of different scientific experiments that have been conducted so far. For instance, in line numbers 7 and 8 he gives the example of experiments conducted at the Oxford University and Northern California. The findings of the two experiments reaffirm the author's claim. Hence, ...