Jeremy Rifkin A Change Of Heart About Animals

Your newspaper published an editorial “A Change of Heart about Animals” September 1, 2003 by Jeremy Rifkin, author and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, in which Rifkin suggests that the center of the human experience is about extending concern to wider and wider realms to the species we share the world with (34). He implies throughout the article that animals like us, feel pain, experience stress, affection, excitement, and even love (33) . He claims that animals should be treated better because they experience similar emotions we do. By focusing on the ideal of extending the amount of empathy we give to animals, Jeremy Rifkin overlooks the deeper issue of how these creatures of the world feel about us because he does not consider that like them, we
Yes, animals can experience grief but can they sense and react peacefully when a situation is harmless ? In the horrific accident that occurred in May 2016 at the cincinnati zoo when a toddler with an irresponsible mother, fell into the gorilla exhibit and panic broke loose. Zoo authorities tried to keep the condition safe but it was too late the toddler was in the hands of the gorilla and being tossed like a rag doll . In the opinion editorial issued by LA Times “Harambe the gorilla dies, meat-eaters grieve” by Peter Singer , a professor of bioethics at Princeton University and Karen Dawn, an author, describe the actions as harmless. Yet they mention that Harambe’s intention was to protect the child but drags “him around ... by the leg, with a speed and force that could have drowned him or crack his skull”. It’s clear that these actions are not considered safe or something a responsible individual would do to a child. Why does our treatment of animals need to be improved or be regulated more than it already is when these animals don’t how to interact with a human in a safe