An Animal's Place Michael Pollan

It is not what people say that defines them, rather it is what people do. Proclaimed sayings and words can only do so much to show a point of view. Ultimately, in society, the importance lies in how a person does something––not about the reasonings and the declarations. Inward principles do not impact other people nearly as much as outward practices. Hence, the importance of prioritizing the doing of one thing over the other. Currently, the treatment of animals by humans is unjust. As a species, starting long ago, humans have killed animals and have eaten their meat as a means of survival. In recent years, however, the desire for meat has come to the point where animals are being forcefully strangled to death and are being genetically manipulated to quickly grow and die. The people who have killed those animals may have had good intentions––to supply food to consumers––but the food was …show more content…
Michael Pollan realizes the importance of putting practice over principle with animal agriculture, and specifically with eating animals in his work “An Animal’s Place”; he shows his support of this ideology through his effective, humane use of pathos, his ability to to draw comparisons, and through the prognosticating of people’s desires. There is a difference between animals and humans; unlike the treatment of humans, there is no exact “check and balance” associated with the practice of treating all animals. Therefore, some animals are treated unfairly. Comparing the differences in treatment of dogs and pigs is a prime example of this claim. Pallon states in “An Animal’s Place” that at Christmas time, dogs receive presents. Meanwhile, not many “pause to consider the miserable life of the pig –– an animal easily as intelligent as a dog –– that becomes the Christmas ham” (206). Pollan