A few weeks ago, a loveable chimp named Travis was shot dead by policemen after he mauled a woman. Many of us may recognize Travis from Old Navy and Coca Cola commercials; he has been in the spotlight for over 15 years. According to witnesses and officials, Travis the chimp lives a fairly human lifestyle. He can bathe himself, surf the Internet, flick through channels and hang out with the family. It wasn’t until recently that he had started to act sort of strange. His “mother” who has been looking after Travis for the last 15 years, first noticed Travis was acting strange a few days before the attack. When she couldn’t figure out what was wrong, she asked her friend to come over.
Maybe it was the way she wore her hair that day but Travis went bananas. Travis jumped on the woman and began clawing her face. When Travis would not stop, his owner went inside for a knife. After stabbing him numerous times, Travis finally fled the scene into his bedroom, where his owner thought he would die. When police got to the scene, there was not much left of the woman’s face or hands. Witnesses said it would be hard to determine whether this woman had a face at all. It was a miracle she survived. As the troopers got back into the car, Travis jumped inside it. There was nothing left to do but shoot. The police put an end to the horror as well as the life of Travis.
There is no denying what Travis did was wrong, but what can one expect from a wild animal? It was never in his best interest to be in clothing and beverage commercials. Chimps don’t belong on TV and they don’t do well in human settings for too long. From a good character and good will standpoint, I’m on Travis’ side. There is no reason that an animal had to die because of this. Furthermore, most citizen journalists have not expressed their sadness for Travis, only the woman that was hurt by him. Why doesn’t anyone else care? Most people agree that Travis is a wild animal and capable of violence (especially because of his size) but it is rare to find anyone who feels bad for Travis, just because. Because of my good character and appreciation of all creatures, this issue really bothers me. Most people don’t care about Travis because they don’t have good will towards animals. I am disappointed in other members of the community because they lack compassion for other creatures.
Right before I was about to lose all faith in humanity, I came across Newsvine.com, a citizen journalist website local to the Seattle area. Newsvine is a great source for all types of news and the best part is, local members of the community “seed” articles to the website, creating their own source for articles from all over the country. There are numerous themes for the articles from business to odd news; there is something for everyone. After each article there is a place for people to comment and debate, making Newsvine a great place to have a public forum on prominent and also not so popular issues. There are Newsvine regulars who write their own articles and tag their favorites. What I love about these people is that they are all very different and bring something unique to the table.
I first read the Travis the chimp story on Newsvine and automatically read the comments following the article in order to see what other people were thinking and feeling about this issue. There were two people that commented on the article that had the most persuasive arguments. One blogger said they grew up with numerous chimps and never saw the potential for them to attack. He shared a few stories about his childhood with chimps, hoping to appeal to a larger animal-loving audience. He was using the rhetorical technique of experience to support his claims.
Another blogger said he had done a lot of research in wild animals and learned that the larger the animal, the greater the amount of violence they can cause. This man was appealing to authority because he had some knowledge on the issue. Both bloggers had credible rhetorical strategies but the wild animal researcher was more appealing to me because my values (as the reader) were more aligned with his. I did not grow up with chimps so using the rhetorical strategy of experience doesn’t work as well for me. By using data, statistics and an authoritative tone in his writing, the second blogger was much more appealing and credible. While both people participated in the forum, neither of them expressed any sadness for Travis, the only victim that had been suffering for years.
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