After thinking about your reading, discussion, and analysis of Rifkin’s article and the letters in response to it, what do you personally think about Rifkin’s point? Do you think it is true, as Rifkin says, that “many of our fellow creatures are more like us than we had ever imagined”? Do you think we need to change the way we treat the animals around us? Or do you think Rifkin is wrong? Write a letter expressing your viewpoint to the editor of the newspaper.
If you like, you may start out with “Dear Editor:”
dear editor,
I agree with rifkin’s idea that animal should be treated with more respect because they benefit us in many way’s since the begening of time. today we use them for many things like they are the reason why we eat stuff like beef,pork and chicken. Also before cars were invented we used hourses and donkeys to get around and to transport things. Most people rely on dogs for protecton and safety so by them protecting you that is a big responsibility that we should be grateful for. rifkin states that animal fell emotion’s like excitement,stress,affection and love, these are all emotions that humans feel so that means there not much different from humans.
sincerly,Isaiah williams
Dear Editor,
I agree with Rifkin that humans and animal are the same. Animals have feelings, experience stress, pain, excitement and even love just like humans. Animals should not get abuse, kill, or hit. They are just like humans who have lives. Human who has family to go to, take care of, and feed are just like animals. Animal are just like family, if you kill an animal it’s just like killing someone you love. What is the point of having a pet if you want to kill animals, many people has pets to protect them. This shows that pets are just like human because they know how to protect their owner and they learn. Just like Koko the gorilla from the Gorilla foundation in Northern California. Koko learned how to do sign language just like human do. I agree with Bob Stevens that “in nature, animals kill and eat each other”, but that’s only in nature. It only happens in the wild. Of course an animal can’t write a grocery list, they are animals you can’t expect that from them. I think that some people are crueler than animals they yell, hit, and attack them. After they do that the animal would become sad. Just like human when someone hurts your feelings, you become sad and it hurts your emotion.
Sincerely,
Kao Thao
i do agree with you that animal should not be abused because that is just not right. I say this because when I see a dog or cat just wondering around the street and are injured, i feel sad about it even though it’s not my pet. So, overall, I think that if a person decides to have a pet, he or she should take his or her responsibility in what he or she has already set out to do and not just want it for a while and just let it go because that it is a LIVING animal.
How to change of an animal hearts
Rifkin, author of “a change of heart about animals” wants us to know how animals should be treated. Rifkin says that the behavior of animals is because they have feelings. They are only mean if they are attacked or abused by people.
I agree with Rifkin because in my experience my turtle, Master of Disguise, shows me his/her intelligence. It shows its true emotions. For example when its hides from me and it scared when I want to look at it or clean his/her tank. It likes to move around a lot and it’s happy when I take it out of its tank. Its funs fast from me and moves really fast.
How is this turtle’s behavior similar to human behavior?
Some animals are like humans sometimes because they can feel what we humans feel then can learn a lot from us. Dogs are smart when they want to be they can do a lot of things that cats and fish can’t do.
Omar Beltran
11/29/11 period1 English Dear Editor I think that this article was just trying to change are minds of what we think about animals. That animals have feelings to but we have to eat we can survive out of eating just vegetables we need to eat meat to. That’s why god gave us animals to eat, that why they over populate use so we don’t have to worry about them going extinct. I think that Rifkin is crazy because animals are ether to food, pets or, helpful animals (help you do jobs). So basically not all animals are to be kept some or to eat some are pets and some are working animals. Rifkin is tripping he probably just feels bad for the animals that’s all or he don’t like the tast of animal meat and he probably think that its bad to eat animal meat. Another thing that could be the reason why Rifkin’s wants rights for the animals could be his religion… will I believe that some animals are to eat but not all of them.
i disagree with you because i dont think you should bring God into this argument…lol
let me get him out of this then
yeah you should because this isnt CHURCH!!!
I agree with you Omar . You tell them.
Dear Editor,
In a 2003 LA times editorial ,”A Change of Heart About Animals,” Jeremy Rifkin, author of the Biotech Century, persuasively argues that” animals feel pain, suffer and experience stress, affection , excitement, and even love and these findings are changing how we view animals.” In addition, he argues us to believe that “animals are more like humans and we should treat them better.”
Responding to Rifkin, Bob Stevens, an LA Times reader, complains that “animals naturally kill and eat each other. If the hawk does not care about the feelings of the rabbits that it eats, why should we be any different?” Stevens insists that Rifkin wants animals to have more rights than humans.
I personally think that I agree and disagree with Jeremy Rifkin. One reason why I agree with Rifkin is because I believe animals have feelings, just like Rifkin said “They feel pain, suffer, and experience stress, affection, excitement, and even love.” Just like when animals are going to be slottered they feel it so they start panicking and crying. Like one time when I was in Mexico and my uncle was going to kill a pig because we were planning to eat it so when my uncle got inside the cage where the pig was and grabbed the pig, so when my uncle was holding the pig the pig started screaming and crying and trying to run away but my uncle still killed the pig.so it’s true that “many of our fellow creatures are more like us than we ever imagined, “because they have feelings like us, but even though the animals have feelings I also think that we shouldn’t pay more attention to the animals suffering than our own human suffering.so I think that we shouldn’t change the way we treat some animals because we need to kill some to eat and survive.
Sincerely,
Amie Castellanos
Dear editor,
In a 2003 LA times editorial, “a change of heart about animals”, Jeremy Rifkin, author of the biotech century, persuasively argues that we should protect our animals which whom we share the earth with from being hunted and harmed.in addition he urges us to believe that animals are just as intelligent as we are for example there are studies shown n proven by the gorillas who can communicate with humans by sign language and still learning more as they keep being taught. responding to Rifkin, Bob Stevens , an LA times reader, complains that Rifkin takes it too far when he states in his article that pigs should have toys to play with and bob says why should pigs have toys when theirs little kids who don’t have toys to play with. Stevens insists that we should not try and protect animals like we do the things we value because there just food for us to survive and they kill each other to survive so why should we protect them if they kill each other anyways there’s no point to waste money and time and also effort that’s given into it Bob Steven’s also insists that we don’t need to treat animals like we do kids or people and provide them with toys to make them happy because there just animals. According to the article “a change of heart about animals”, Jeremy Rifkin’s, persuasively argues that we should protect animals because they have intelligent, but not only are they intelligent they have feelings and emotions. As a responder to that article ”a change of heart about animals”, Bob Stevens states that” Rifkin goes so far as to say that pig’s need social contact and should be provided with toys”. Though I concede that Bob Stevens may be right about the pig does not need toys. I still insist that we protect our animals and not harm them like we do. for example when we cut down forest’s for the trees the wild life there is gone vanished with an blink of an eye no home to return for them that’s like when you go to the store for a few moments and you go back home and your home is gone torn down how would you feel if that happened to you. So with being said why can’t we try and understand more about the animals before we say were done trying and forget animals there just food and there no use because they are a big help in our environment and society in today’s world as we know it, so if we understand them we can make this a better world for them as animals and us as humans as a safer place for both animals and humans to life in today’s word as one.
Sincerely,
Joseph Garrido
Dear Jeremy Rifkin,
You argue and try to persuade us to change our mind about being cruel to animals even though society won’t change its mind about being vegetarian’s because too many people are in love with meat and people understand that we got to eat vegetables, but we can’t eat the same kind of food every day. With meat we can make all types of different food that we will all enjoy. I have read and understand the point that Bob Stevens is trying to inform us. Bob Stevens is an LA time’s reader responding to your article. Stevens says,” Jeremy Rifkin wants animals to have more rights and respect”. Stevens also insists that we shouldn’t be fooled by you because you’re just an animal-rights activist hiding behind a handful of scientific studies. I agree with Bob Stevens because he also says, “there are many real human children in the world who don’t have toys so why should pigs have toys?” Bob Stevens think that he is right about what he’s trying to say towards your persuasive article. You try to make us believe that pigs have feelings too, but how would you know if you haven’t been in a pigs position or you probably don’t own a pigs to know if it’s true.
Sincerely,
Adolfo Leon
Dear Editor:
I agree with Rifkin in his article “ A Change of Heart”, where he states, “many of our fellow creatures are more like us than we ever imagined” because animals might not behave the same way as us but many animals have many human characteristics. Also, animals also have feelings like we do, they cry, they can be sick, some animals can even talk like parrots. Other animals cannot talk the same words we do but they can listen like dogs if you train your dog how to sit when you tell it to sit or to fetch. Many animals are very smart but they are smart in their own way just like humans. They can also feel compassion towards each other like mother bears, if you mess with her baby cub she will go off on you, just like any human mother would if someone messed with her baby or child. Also, animals can get their own food or go searching for food if they need it, if a dog is left out in the street and it doesn’t find food it will go searching for it like a human would in their fridge. Animals are very smart once it comes to survival and so are humans. I still think that us as humans have the right to eat beef or pork or chicken though. I just say that all animals should be taken care of by humans except pigs, cows and chickens because those are for us to eat.
Not only are some animals used as pets but others are used as guides. Many dogs are being used as guides for people who cannot see or for police officers like a K-9. Those K-9s are dogs but they will protect the police officer when the officer is in danger. Those dogs are animals but they have many characteristics of a human, they listen, they will attack if they feel threatened, and they will defend the person they love. I say protect all pets except cats, I hate those but dogs are cool.
-Javier Leon
I do agree that each animal is smart in there own ways because each animal has its own personality. I say this because my sister owns about three dogs. Each of them has their own way of having fun. The first dog would run around, the second would bite the others, and the third would clean herself and stare at you all day without getting tired. So, i think that that each animal is different even though they may fall under the same category of what people put them in.
Dear editor,
In a 2003 LA Times editorial, ”A Change of Heart About Animals,” Jeremy Rifkin, author of the Biotech Century, persuasively argues that animals are intelligent beings and that they should get more attention and more care. In addition, he urges us to believe that animals have emotions and they are more intelligent than what they are categorized into. Responding to Rifkin, Bob Stevens, an LA Times reader, complains that animal do not need the attention that Rifkin describes. He also states that Rifkin focuses on animal suffering rather than human suffering. Stevens insist that animals are simple creature and they are not complex. He argues that humans eating other animals are a part of nature, as it is natural selection.
According to Jeremy Rifkin, author of the Biotech Century, in his article “A Change of Heart About Animals,” he claims that animals are highly intelligent, and we should treat them better with care and understanding them. I agree with Rifkin that animals are intelligent and do that they do have complex emotions but I agree with Stevens in that animals don’t need the attention Rifkin describes in his article. In Rifkin’s article, he describes of two Caledonian crows able to create a hook out of a straight wire to snag a piece of meat out of the tubes. It shows intelligence in animals. He also describes of a group of elephants standing next to their dead kin for days, occasionally touching the dead bones with their trunks. This shows that that elephants have emotions and that they feel pain for their dead kin. Though I concede that animals are intelligent, I don’t think my outlook on animal has been changed. We are all part of a food chain, and we, as humans are on top of the food chain. Though I do concede that the way we slaughter animals is very cruel, I don’t believe eating them is wrong.
Dear editor:
By focusing on animals, Jeremy Rifkin’s article, “A Change of Heart About Animals”, overlooks a deeper problem. Human problems such as world hunger, war, and poverty are more important than giving a pig a toy. Bob Stevens questions Rifkin and implies he is avoiding human issues. Rifkin states that animals are equal because of simple emotions that animals and humans share. Emotions are universal and are not to be confused with intelligence. Rifkin gives examples of animals responding to human beings such as koko the gorilla, but he doesn’t explain if the animals understand what they are doing. He also explains that the animals can adjust to their surroundings. This could be an example of survival of the fittest. I disagree with Rifkin when he says that animals are like us. We are way more complicated than any other creature on earth. Although they may have the similar emotions, we still shouldn’t treat them any different from what they are: animals.
Sincerely; Teki
Dear Editor,
I agree with Jeremy Rifkin, an author of the Biotech Century, that animals do have emotions and are able to feel them. In Rifkin’s article, “A Change of Heart about Animals,” he mainly argues that humans should feel more sympathetic towards animals because their emotions are also like humans. For example, we humans release a brain chemical called dopamine when we feel good and are excited about the things that we are doing. Like us, the studies of the brain chemistry of rats had shown that rats releases dopamine as they play with one another. This helps us to see that rats are happy to be with each other just like when we people like to hang out with our friends and have fun. As a result, this shows that animals are able to feel happy just like humans when they play with each other. On the other hand, Bob Stevens, a LA Times reader, disagreed about Rifkin’s article. After reading Rifkin’s article, Stevens complained that Rifkin’s belief was not right due to that animals just kill each other and feed off one another. He says that animals do not care about each other’s feelings just like a hawk killing a rabbit without thinking about the rabbit’s feelings. Though I concede that animals may not understand how other animals feel at certain times like killing one another, I still insist that animals do have emotions and can feel pain amongst each other. I say this because there are times that animals do care about one another. For example, if a bird was to have eggs and they hatched, the mama bird would not let its babies go hungry. She would go search for food for her babies and be very protective of them from predators. Not only that, but her babies will also learn from their mother on how to survive by themselves. This is just like my parents. When I was still a baby, my mom and dad would work and get money to take care me and my siblings. They would worry about us when we go somewhere because they don’t want anything to happen to us. Even until today, I am still learning things from my parents on how to live in this world and how the system works to survive in this place that I am living in. This shows that animals do care about their children just like our parents care about us. So, maybe there are times when animals do kill each other for their survival but there are also times that these animals could have some similar emotions like us when caring about one another or spending time with each other.
Sincerely,
Jamila Vue
Dear Editor,
I think Jeremy Rifkin’s argument is mistaken because he overlooks the fact that we should treat animals like humans/make them apart of our community. By focusing on giving animals human rights Rifkin overlooks the deeper problem of animals and humans are kind of similar but were diffrent. Were similar because both animals and humans will fight for there kin, and when we both become angry or feel in danger we both can become violent. Were diffrent because children can be taught right from wrong/ they can be trained. On the other hand wild animals cant really be trained like children because thier naturally born to be wild animals. Thats why i say their diffrent, theres more reasons but i just wanted to state an example. Rifkin’s claim that animals are apart of our community so we should treat them like there one of us rests upon the questionable assumption that animals shouldnt be treated like us humans.
Sincerely,
Berrick Washington
I agree with you berry, animals and humans are not the same
I disagree with you because animals are pretty much like humans too,
because they do understand what we say to them too, also as much as we don’t understand the animals they will do things that are unusual for us to know that they have to go poop or pee.
Dear Editor,
In my opinion I agree with Mr. Rifkin because I believe that animals should not be abused. If animals fight and kill each other, that doesn’t mean that we should hit them and abuse them just because they do it to themselves. We all know more, and also we can do more, by doing more I mean in hitting animals with objects that can kill them or put them in serious injuries. I also disagree with what Mr. Stevens says because he says that it’s a way of life in nature. Just because animals hurt each other that doesn’t mean that we have the right to hurt them also. If they don’t hurt us why should we hurt them? Animals do feel pain too, and also have feelings too. Mr. Stevens should put himself in the animal’s position before he said what he said, would he want to be beaten for no reason? I don’t think so because he wouldn’t even like it if someone was beating on him. Stevens also states that animals can’t make a grocery list or write poems, does it matter? I don’t think so because even if their humans or not they could still do the same things that we all do too. Animals should be loved and cared for and not just be treated like something that doesn’t have life or anything like that at all, and if Mr. Stevens doesn’t like that then he shouldn’t even have any pets of his own at all than,if he’s gonna be like that towards animals.
Sincerely
Amanda V.
Dear, Editor Jeremy Rifkin
Re. “A Change of Heart About Animals” I agree with Stevens argument, “In nature, animals naturally kill and eat each other”. If they don’t have any sympathy for their own fellow creatures then why should we have any reason to intervene with the delicate balance of nature? But I also have my own claim on this as well… If we train, or educate, animals to become smarter than what they are now, what will happen if something, like from the movies, happens and it comes true, huh? What will you [we] do then? What will happen if we teach apes how to use a weapon for war; And what happens if an ape, like Hitler, is born and doesn’t like humans and goes on a human genocide rampage, huh? It’s better if we just keep nature to itself. I’m sorry but something’s just aren’t reasonable enough to stake the human life on. But I also agree with Rifkin, if we want better understanding of animals. When I was a child my grandpa, my dad, and I would always go kill, every-once-in-a-while, goat, pig, chickens, or duck. I got used to killing these animals and now I just kill them without thinking about how they feel. I feel nothing no sympathy towards them when they are about to be slaughtered us. My argument is that how long will we disrupt and temper, or tinker, with nature and animals before nature and animals turns against us?
I agree with Sonia. Animals have emotions as do humans. Yes, they’re alike to us and we should treat them well, but what will be the point of treating chickens well too? Were just going to kill them so why bother with care?
i dont agree, how are you so sure animals have emotions as well as us?
Adolfo, the reason I know why animals have emotions as we humans do is because it has been proven by science and it’s only common sense that every living thing (animals, humans, insects) have feelings because you can tell by their actions.
In a 2003 LA Times editorial, “A CHange Of Heart About Animals,’ Jeremy Rifkin, authors of the Biotech Century, persuasively argues that the current studies of animals open up new phases in which we should expand and deeen our Empathy to inclue the broader community of creatures we share the earth with…I agree with his statment because we should all be nce to animals…because we share the world with them…we should care for animals because they have feelings just as us humans do…
Bob Stevens, an LA Times reader, complains that Rifklin is comparing pigs to human children and should have toy to play with…Rifkin says that animals should be treated better that humans… Stevens insist that Rifkin is simply a animal rights activis hiding behind scientific studies… I agree with Bob Stevens because animals shouldent be treated better then humans because we eat them…only certain ones though…
Over all…I agree with Rifkin because we all should treat animals with respect…
I think that animals should be treated better then what they are being treated. According to Rifkin they do have feelings and emotions. There more like humans then what we think.
Dear Editor,
In response to Jeremy Rifkin’s article, “A Change of Heart about Animals”, he makes a statement that animals are being more like us than we had ever imagined. Because of my past experience with animals, I would have to disagree. Animals/pets would jump all over me nonstop and would always make constant noise. I mean you don’t see humans getting all up on a stranger’s personal space. It would be portrayed as weird and disrespectful. When animals do it, people would see it as okay, because they’re ANIMALS! If animals can do it, why can’t we as humans do the same as well? Responding to Rifkin, Bob Stevens, an LA Times reader, complains that animals don’t care about another animal’s feelings when it comes to their prey so why should humans be any different and why give pigs toys if there are many children in the world who don’t have any? I, in the other hand strongly agree with Bob Stevens because most people who actually care about an animal’s feelings, are the people who own pets and or who serve to protect animals. Other than that, any other animal is seen as food or wild. For example, in China, Korea and possibly other of Asia’s countries’ economy, dogs and cats are seen as food. In the US, dogs and cats are considered pets or a “man’s best friend”. If a man had a chicken as a pet, most people would not see it as a man’s best friend, they’d automatically see it as grub. I don’t see this as animal cruelty because the dogs and cats over in Asia are born raised and born as livestock. I would see it as animal cruelty if they went around kidnapping pets and slaughtering them but clearly that’s not how it’s done over there. Overall, I’m all for Bob Stevens.
-Jasmine Young K.
i disagree with you of when you said that animals weren’t slaughtered how would you actually know? i am pretty sure that everywhere in the world they slaughtered animals. and he compared animals to children, not a human being that knows what is right from wrong. children make weird noises when they cant speak and get all weird when they see someone they love.
i disagree with you jasmine because when you think about it everywhere you go an animal has to die so when animals die they arent the ones thats being cruel its us who is being cruel to them. By the way it doesnt really matter if people went around kidnapping animals or not its still animal cruelty as long as it is related to some sort of abusing of the animal.
“I would see it as animal cruelty if they went around kidnapping pets and slaughtering them but clearly that’s not how it’s done over there.”
To make my point clear, the slaughtering in this case referred to if they kidnapped pets and there by killing them. Which they did not, they used stray animals in this case, so yes slaughtering is involved but not slaughtering one’s pet.
I disagree with you too because how do you know that animals aren’t getting slaughter because everyday everywhere someone is still slaughtering animals till now .
And Vidy I agree with you.
I also disagree with you too because everywhere you go you see some kind of animal is dying somewhere and you just don’t know it . So like till know every kind of animal is still dying somewhere out there and we all just don’t know where at .
Dogs/cats over in Asia are born/raised as LIVESTOCK. They were not bred to be kept as pets.
Dear Jeremy Rifkin,
You persuasively argue that animals should be treated better and that they deserve more rights than what people think they deserve. In addition, you urge us to believe that animals should be treated as humans and that we should give them more. Responding to you, Rifkin, Bob Stevens, an LA Times reader, complains that pigs deserve toys to play with which is absurd because not even human babies who are poor have these necessities. Steven insists that science has shown us that the difference between animals and humans are less than we think. I think Rifkin is getting carried away with his emotions and he should put others perspective instead of his. Also, he argues about how animals are alike to humans but if that was the case then why do we exclude animals from the human race? I agree with Stevens when he said that “Rifkin is just an animal-rights activist hiding behind a handful of scientific studies.” In my opinion, Rifkin is asking for too much because I have pets at home and I treat them as nature intends them to be treated, I treat them that way because animals are meant to be animal it’s in their nature.
Sincerely,
Jorge Vazquez
Dear Editor,
I agree with Bob Stevens who said that Rifkin is an animal-rights activist hiding behind a handful of scientific studies. Rifkin rarely talks about his point of view on how he feels about animal rights and such. Instead he only talks about feelings of animals, lives of animals, and things he could have just mainly looked up on the internet to find an argument on why animals should be treated fairly. Animals will die one day and as humans, we need to feed on farm animals like pigs to survive because the meat gives us strength and vitamins we need. Also Rifkin argues that pigs should be given toys to play with as if they were regular children. A lot of regular children in Asia, Africa, and even the United States are too poor to have toys, so why should pigs be given things that the superior human race cannot have? Things should be done right and overlooked, so Rifkin should think of positives and negatives of treating animals fairly. In the end I am not saying that animals should be treated with cruelty, but there are limits of rights that should be given to animals. The human race should take care of their own before they try to take care of another race of animal species.
Sincerely,
Matthew Saelee
Although I agree with Bob Stevens to point, I cannot accept this overall conclusion that animals are cruel because animals are only cruel to what they don’t like. Even though it is not scientifically not proven that animal can’t write a poem or a grocery list it doesn’t mean that animal doesn’t think how us human think like. For example like Koko the gorilla at the Gorilla Foundation in Northern California she learned sign language just like how us human could learn it if taught to us. Another example is Betty and Abel the two birds at Oxford University, they both had wires a straight wire and a wire that is already like a hook. Abel us the wire that was like a hook already and grab the piece of meat then betty she turned the straight wire into a hook and then grab the meat. This here proves that animal could think like us humans could. But as to animals being cruel I don’t agree because animals get beat up too, like if one animal has an owner the animal gets beat up for something that it didn’t do. So when think about humans are even more cruel then animals. For example when you watch all of those ads of animals walking in the streets or being sad because of something they didn’t do you should blame humans for all the cruelty it done to animals. Most animals are only as cruel as how they were taught if they have an owner, like if a dog was taught to bite people it is on the owner that taught them how to be cruel. But animals do have emotions like us humans too, for example an elephant shows grief when there is a dead kin they would just stand and touch the kin with their trunks. Another example is that dogs get sad because they get yelled at so they get sad too and that’s a very deep emotion that all humans have. So not all animal is cruel as what humans have done to animals.
Dear Editor,
According to Rifkin’s article, “A change of heart about animals,” we should treat animals with better care and there should be animal rights given to them. He claims that animals are more like us than we had ever imagined. Their behavior is similar to humans and they also feel many different emotions. I somewhat agree with Rifkin. Many harmless animals are mistreated and they should not be. There was a time when I was shown a video about where the meat we eat comes from. That video showed chickens caged inside a small area, also in bad conditions that were probably bad for their health. The workers there tossed them around carelessly and ignored their cries. There were also many chickens that were already dead in the mix of other live chickens. From watching that video, I felt that they deserve to be well treated because I see that they can feel pain and fear just like we do. According to researchers animals can feel pain, suffer, and experience, stress affection, excitement, and even love. Scientists are also finding that learning is passed on from parent to offspring and most animals engage in these experiences. Since these animals have such ability that are so similar to us, I think they should have their own rights and be protected. Though I concede that it is not wrong to slaughter animals as it is a way of our food chain, I still insist that we should still treat them better and not harm them unfairly.
Sincerely,
Sonia D.
i agree with Sonia, animals shouldnt be treated unfairly just because humans eat meat to survive, when in reality in my opinion meat isnt really needed to survive.
I agree with you because as humans, we knowmore and have control over what we do. We should use the control we have to treat animals fairly rather than abusing them. It’s true that they don’t have many capabilities as we do but they do share similar emotions.
I agree with Sonia, but about the chickens? They are only in there temporarily, but their only treated like that because that’s not like y know that they are about to slaughter the chickens soon and it’s not like the chickens have to be treated like they’re going to live for awhile. Why put their hopes up and then take it away from them? Just put it out of it’s misery fast and clean. 😀
I agree with Sonia, because animal should not be harm just human can have meat to eat.
Dear Editor,
In my opinion I agree with Mr. Rifkin because I believe that animals should not be abused. If animals fight and kill each other, that doesn’t mean that we should hit them and abuse them just because they do it to themselves. We know more, and also we can do more, by doing more I mean in hitting animals with objects that can kill them. I disagree with what Mr. Stevens says because he says that it’s a way of life in nature. Just because animals hurt each other does not mean that we have the right to hurt them also. If they don’t hurt us why should we hurt them? Animals feel pain, and also have feelings. Mr. Stevens should put himself in the animal’s position, would he want to be beaten for no reason? I don’t think so. Stevens also states that animals can’t make a grocery list or write poems, does it matter? I don’t think so. Animals should be loved and cared for, if he doesn’t like that then he shouldn’t have any pets.
Sincerely,
Paola Sanchez
very true, i agree as well. we should treat them better than themselves. that is why there are things such as pets so that we can care for them. 😀
Dear Editor,
In a 2003 LA Times editorial, “A change of Heart about Animals,” Jeremy Rifkin, author of the Biotech Century, persuasively argues that Animals are more like us than we had ever imagined. And these findings are changing how we view animals. In addition, he urges us to believe that they feel pain, suffer and experience stress, affection, excitement, and even love. Anyone who has owned a pet knows that animals can feel pain, happiness, anger, and other simple emotions. Responding to Rifkin, Bob Stevens, an LA Times reader, complains that animals and humans aren’t equal, he disagrees and says that animals kill each other and its part of their nature to do so. Stevens insists that in nature, animals naturally kill and eat each other. And that we should also kill animals and eat them. I agree with Rifkin’s argument because I think it’s not right to kill animals and eat them. Because they are just like humans and they have a life to live. They also have families that they have to take care of and to feed them, just like us. They have feelings and emotions as well. Anyone who had pets would know that animals have emotions. They are just like family, if you would kill an animal that’s just like killing a family member.
Sincerely,
Sabrina Kumar.
i agree with Sabrina because it is true that animals have emotions just like humans do……….
I agree that animals should be treated with better care, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we have to stop eating meat. Because most of us have lived on meat for our whole lives I find that it would be difficult for most people to adapt to a vegetarian lifestyle. Instead, we should still treat them more lovingly rather than being harsh.
i agree that animals have all the emotions that we do, but it also also important that we humans have meat to because without meat we cant have all the proteins and all that we need. So to what i think is that we shuldnt kill to many animals but just enough to feed for your own family.
I agree with Sabrina, that human and animals has the same emotion.
Dear Editor,
In a 2003 LA Times editorial, “A Change of Heart about Animals,” Jeremy Rifkin, author of the Biotech Century, persuasively argues that we should treat animals with respect, because they are the creatures in whom we share the Earth with. In addition, he argues us to believe that they are more like us than we actually think they are. Animals have emotions and feelings too. Responding to Rifkin, Bob Stevens, an LA Times reader, complains that animals and humans aren’t equal, he disagrees and says that animals kill each other and its part of their nature to do so. Steven insists that animals don’t have emotions and don’t care about each other’s feelings. I agree with Rifkin’s argument that we need to treat animals with love and respect because my experience with my ex-dog confirms it. When we had him, he was a nice and caring pit-bull, we raised with a lot of love and respect. He would receive a lot of attention from everyone, so he was very happy and spoiled. Then we had to give him away because we were moving in into an apartment, so no dogs were allowed. We gave him to a family, they mistreated him and he turned into a mean sad pit-bull. Rifkin states, “That they crave affection and are easily depressed if isolated or denied playtime,” (4). Rifkin claims that isolating animals could be unhealthy for them. Not giving them the attention they need could seriously harm them mentally. I believe that because my ex-dog when we gave him away his new family was obviously not treating him right, it is proof due to his behavioral change. Humans aren’t the only living thing that matter in this world; animals matter as well, just because they’re animals means they don’t have a heart or emotions. They do, and they have feelings too, they’re smart and know stuff. Seeing an animal suffer is like seeing a baby suffer. They can’t tell you what they need exactly but they know how to communicate. Treat other the way you’d like to be treated, including animals. I say, everyone should start treating animals with respect, and to step up so a difference can be actually made. Join organizations that are against animal abuse is something not everyone does, and is leadership because making a change in your life to make an animals’ life better is a sacrifice.
Sincerely,
Vidy Lopez
i agree with you because i had pets of my own. 🙂
I agree, I have pets
I agree with vidy because i have seen how animals act after u have yelled at them or have given them away. They have feelings just like we do……
I agree with vidy because an animal is how they are because of how they are treated.