Animal Exploitation Essay

953 Words4 Pages
Does the End Justify the Means? “The fact that the chimpanzee is our nearest zoological relative makes it perhaps the unluckiest animal on earth, because what the kinship has come to mean is that we feel free to do most of the things to a chimp that we refrain from doing to each other (94).” In the essay “The Pain of Animals” by David Suzuki, he provides an effective and knowledgeable argument concerning the extent humans exploit animals. Ultimately, Dr. Suzuki acknowledges the invaluable contributions derived from such exploitations; but he is compelled to raise awareness on the severity of how the violations of animal rights have escalated to an unprecedented and heartbreaking degree. Dr. Suzuki structures his essay well by beginning with a personal anecdote to humanize him aside from all his qualifications (geneticist, professor, awards, etc) and to appeal to the whole of his audience, not just colleagues, for the essay was published in The Globe newspaper (June 1988). The anecdote also employs pathos by evoking empathy towards the helpless and innocent squirrel that began to cry in “terror and anguish”; as a young Suzuki slung marbles, with the intent to kill for pleasure, at the squirrel (90). The squirrel is personified with emotion to catch the reader’s initial awareness of how even the young Suzuki’s thoughtlessness for fun can be extremely detrimental to an animal; in addition, he uses this anecdote to build towards latter points. He then proceeds to relay his disdain to “pleasure-fish” for he believes “fish are to be caught for consumption (91).” He supports this claim with logos as he states fish posses “well-developed nervous systems that detect pain ,” which explains their “frantic fight to escape” and rebuts his past rationalization that fish don’t feel pain because they are cold-blooded(91). Dr. Suzuki confesses, through hunting and fishing, he
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