Major Persuasive Project

Travis the Chimp and our Ultimate Reality; Students Don’t Care about Animals

          An Editorial for Newsvine.com

            By: Gabrielle Ashton Evans

March 10^th 2009

 

 

Audience: The subscribers and viewers from Newsvine.com come from all over the world. I expect residents from Seattle to read this piece as well as animal lovers or frequent visitors to the site. I know there are a lot of people in the greater Seattle area that really do care about animals so It will be interesting to see their comments and the number of votes this article receives.

 

Analysis: This editorial will be appealing to my audience because many people in Seattle are animal lovers but they also feel like the minority, not many people do care. I know that Newsvine members are interested in all types of news and the opinions of other members. Most likely they will be searching for the type of information within my editorial and they will accidentally stumble upon it. Many Newsvine members are young college students and they might have opposite views that I do, it is likely that they will be reading this article as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Travis the chimp has been in the spotlight for years. Whether it was in Old Navy or Coca Cola commercials, Travis has been a friendly face on TV for many. What we didn't know was that Travis was going to be getting much more media attention. In the past few weeks many stories have been done on Travis because he attacked a family friend by mauling her face and ripping apart the palms of her hands. What Travis did was wrong and everyone in America feels terrible for the poor woman not many people feel bad for Travis. Most of them say things like, "well of course the chimp did that, he's a wild animal!" or "that's what you get for keeping a chimp for a pet" but the people that feel bad for Travis, because he's Travis, are few and far between. 

Unfortunately, Travis is not the only animal who has been looked over. In America, millions of animals roam the streets homeless or spend their days and nights in cages. Most of these animals are “put to sleep” or more realistically, killed because there just isn’t room for them and breeders keep on breeding, preventing the mutts and kittens from making it to a loving home. Every animal deserves a home and a chance at a happy life and for many people that’s obvious. However, how do we convince the other half of the nation, the larger half, that animal cruelty is wrong? Better yet, how do we convince them that animals have a worth and inalienable rights, because they’re creatures- like us.

Sources say Travis the chimp lived a fairly human lifestyle. He enjoyed TV, surfing the Internet, sleeping in his bed and dressing himself. He ate at the table with the rest of the family and enjoyed many things humans enjoy as well. While this may seem cute and maybe fascinating to many Americans, it deep disturbs people like me, animal lovers. A real animal lover loves not because the animal is cute or funny but because the animal deserves to be happy like the rest of us creatures. Travis never wanted to life he had. He's a wild animal and deserves to enjoy the life of a wild chimp. The fact that he lashed out and attacked a family friend only supports this idea. After 15 years of being on camera, no wonder Travis went bananas. He just couldn't take it anymore. 

             Today in my persuasive writing class we discussed PETA and the persuasive videos they show in the hopes of rallying members and preventing animal cruelty. The responses from students only support my theory even further: most students don't care about animal rights. The Catalyst, a Seattle University newsletter, took a poll in last month's edition on which issues were most important to Seattle University students. I was appalled to find out Animal Rights was tied in last place for the least important social issue. The only other issue that fell this low was the issue of student loans. Student loans vs. Animal Rights? Really? I struggle with this because in my mind, the life of an animal is worth much more than money or the ability to borrow money from a bank. But like I said, I'm alone in this battle. 

 What is it going to take for people to care more about the life of an animal? Do we need more graphic images? More terrifying statistics? According to the Humane Society of the Untied States, 6-8 million cats and dogs are euthanized in shelters each year while only 3-4 million are adopted. PETA's videos include some of the most horrific footage I have ever seen but after showing some of the videos, the students in class continue to laugh and joke around. For them, life goes on. Many people don't see animals as being even close to as worthy of value as humans, so they struggle to grant them the natural rights that seem so obvious to me. For the above reasons, I am extremely frustrated with people on this issue, everyday. Why do so many people enjoy the bliss of ignorance and turn a blind eye when they see animals suffer? 

 

**Included in the article on Newsvine.com, I have posted a few pictures of Travis

**link to the actual article on Newsvine.com: http://evansg.newsvine.com/_news/2009/03/04/2505714-travis-the-chimp-and-our-ultimate-reality-students-dont-care-about-animals-