TOW 5: Are Chicks Brighter Than Babies? by Nicholas D. Kristof

Many articles talk about how unjust veal is, and law enforcement delivers punishment for the mishandling of cats and dogs, but it is not easy to find arguments against the maltreatment of poultry.  In the case of Are Chicks Brighter Than Babies?  Kristof does.  Nicholas Kristof has experience with the farming of poultry.  Before graduating from Harvard and becoming an award winning journalist he grew up on a sheep and cherry farm.  He uses an anecdote from this time as a method of getting his point across.  He talks about the relationships between geese and how when he would take one to the chopping block its mate would follow.  This short story really helps his article along because it shows his experience along with getting the readers’ emotions going.  Kristof also uses the assistance of the time, right after a salmonella outbreak, as another assistor.  He uses it as a lead saying that it is not the only reason not to eat chicken as well as using its attention to springboard his idea and have it start as a more important piece.  The last technique that Kristof uses is to talk about the animals in reference to how smart they are.  He talks about how they can count and how they are even about as smart as toddlers.  This is in an effort to appeal again to people’s emotions due to the fact that they feel as if the animals are more important if they are smarter.  All of these methods work in convincing his more middle aged audience of his purpose.  The fact that although it is not bad to eat poultry from time to time it is important to realize where they are coming from and that they are not the idiots that we take them to be.