Amorisa Salgado
Professor Kylee Pastore
Freshman Composition
27 September 2021
American College Campuses are Hot Spots for Protests Against Animal Experimentation
Since its popularization in the 1930’s, animal testing has been protested by activist groups who deem it inhumane. However, many argue that such testing is necessary to further our understanding of how certain cosmetics, pharmaceutical products, and psychological techniques work. Majority of the laboratories responsible for animal testing are in colleges and universities across the country. Activists use their campuses as locations to perform rallies, urging the students of each campus to fight against animal testing.
An article on dailybruin.com, the school newspaper for UCLA, by alumni Martin Bilbao and Armando Carrillo titled “Activists March through Westwood and UCLA to Protest Animal Experimentation” shows one example of an animal rights group doing just that. The authors write in an informational tone, notifying students of the events of the protests and providing reasoning behind them. They are writing to the students at UCLA to inform them of what goes on in their own campus. The purpose of this piece is to give protestors a voice and share their message with a broader audience. It seems that the authors side with the protestors, as they do not mention any counterclaims by people who are pro-animal testing. A cultural expectation of the Daily Bruin newspaper is to keep students up to date and inform them of what goes on in their own campus. As alumni, the authors are credible sources. They publish news that they would have been interested in when they were students. The genre of this piece is newspaper article, and the medium is online. This allows a broader audience to be reached, extending beyond the UCLA community. When this article was published in 2019, several other colleges and universities exposed their laboratories for conducting for animal testing. Students at those schools could have read this article and had been inspired to dig deeper into their own.
Another school who held an animal protest rally was Yale. An article on yalenewsdaily.com, the school newspaper, titled “Animal rights activists target med school research” details the events of the rally. Like the rally at UCLA, “protesters claimed that the medical school “tortures” and “murders” animals.” (Peryer). The author of this piece is Marisa Peryer, a staff reporter. She writes in a neutral tone, siding with neither the protesters nor the experimenters. As a faculty member, she is a credible source because she understands the inner workings of a college campus. She is expected to present her colleagues in a positive light, while accurately reporting the full story to students, satisfying both parties. Peryer is writing to anyone who wants to know the details of the event. Her purpose in writing this piece was to recall the events of the protest and to share accounts from both sides. The genre of this piece is newspaper article, and the medium is online. It was released in 2019, when other schools were owning up to practicing animal testing. In a timely fashion, Yale too published this piece, along with other prestigious universities.
A third school who published a similar piece during 2019 is the University of Washington. Dailyuw.com published a piece titled “Animal Rights Initiative Protests Against Animal Testing at the UW”. This piece was written by contributing writer, Andy Samms. As a contributing writer, he does not have a bias towards the protestors or the faculty, making him a credible source. He simply just writes for the website. Most likely he is a student writer, in which case he is even more credible because he knows firsthand what students want to be informed of. He maintains a positive tone throughout the article, as he mentions “The peaceful approach was a general success” (Samms). This shows that he sides with protestors, as he considers their efforts successful. The purpose of writing the article is to make UW students aware of the issue on hand. His audience is UW students since he is trying to educate them directly. The genre of this piece is newspaper article, and the medium is online. A cultural expectation for dailyuw.com is to keep students up to date on current events. Considering that this piece was published in such a relevant year for the exposure of animal testing, it was expected that The University of Washington publish a piece on their own laboratories as well.
An article on columbiadailytribune.com titled “PETA renews protest of animal testing at University of Missori” accounts the details of yet another animal testing protest at an American college campus. This source, unlike the other three, is not a school newspaper, yet a newspaper written to serve the region of Mid-Missouri. The author, Roger McKinney, has worked as a newspaper reporter for more than 30 years in Missouri. He is a credible source because he is a resident in the area he reports on and has personal ties to it. The author is writing to anyone who lives in the region of Mid-Missouri. His purpose of writing is to recount the events of the protest and share the sides of both the protesters and the school. He writes in a neutral tone, noting each group’s point of view. The genre of this piece is newspaper article, and the medium is online. Residents of Missouri expect the Columbia Daily Tribune to report news that they otherwise would not have previously known. During 2019, when numerous colleges were found to experiment on animals, it may have shocked Missouri residents to learn that one of their own schools did the same. Columbia Daily Tribune, like all other newspapers, is expected to share this news with the public, highlighting certain topics and their relevance to the community.
My final source comes from a journal rather than a newspaper. Titled “Radical Animal Rights and Environmental Activism as Rites of Passage”, this source explores the actions of environmental activists and their impacts on the community. It details the events of several rallies in which protestors committed criminal acts to make their opinions heard. It compares religion to environmentalism, as many environmentalists claim to be “born again” under the notion that beginning a career in supporting animal rights is equivalent to starting a new life. The author of this source is Sarah M. Pike. She is a religion professor at the University of California who has an interest in environmentalism. She is a credible source because her work was published within the journal of ritual studies, meaning that her colleagues believe she is credible and qualified. She has an opposing stance against protesters and uses an aggressive tone and language to communicate so. She is appealing to those who disagree with protesters and their actions, making them her target audience. The purpose of this piece is to give an insight to the beliefs of animal rights activists while also criticizing their actions. The genre of this piece is an academic article. The medium is online journal, however there are also print versions available. This piece was published in 2013, years before the other pieces were published. This shows that Pike was informed of the dangers of animal rights protests before the authors of the other sources. Around the release date of this piece, animal protesting occurred but was supported by many. This piece offered a different insight as to why it was dangerous and potentially taboo in relation to those who equated it with religion. The cultural expectation of this piece is to defend religion, given the fact that Pike’s colleagues and audience are all employees of the religion department.
Each of the sources I selected are unique, however they all share similarities in terms of rhetorical concepts. Four out of five of my sources are of the same genre (newspaper article). All five are of the same medium (online). They all were written in relation to a college campus or community, signifying that maybe animal experimentation is more of an academic issue than I previously thought. Also, majority of the authors share a neutral stance on the topic. In addition, all of them are credible sources and are qualified to report on the subject. My sources differ in the sense that some of them focus on different aspects of animal rights protesting. For example, my fifth source focuses on the dangers of protesting and even brings up the topic of religion. Another source details the events of a protest in response to a bill being passed. A third source mentions PETA and what the organization does to help protestors at the school. The remaining sources mention various other details while sticking to the theme. All the authors used different language, had different purposes of writing, and different cultural expectations placed upon them, yet they all were able to effectively communicate the topic. What I can conclude is that the sources are similar enough in terms of topic, yet they each use different details and methods of using rhetorical concepts to introduce and explain that topic. This reveals that rhetorical concepts are useful in developing a theme and can be used to either compare or contrast a specific topic.
Studying the rhetorical elements of my sources taught me how important it was to pick the right source. By doing such an in-depth analysis, I unknowingly narrowed down my topic and made it specific to a certain region and time frame. Originally, I struggled with picking a topic that was specific enough; however, by performing a rhetorical element analysis on all possible sources, I was able to solve that problem. By examining the author, their credibility, their audience, their tone, their purpose in writing, their stance on the topic, the genre of the piece, the medium of the piece, and the cultural expectations for where the piece was published, I gained a greater understanding of what it means to select a good source. This helped my writing overall, as I can now use rhetorical elements in my writing to effectively convey my intended message and reach my intended audience.
Works Cited
Bilbao, Martin and Carrillo, Armando, “Activists march through Westwood and UCLA to protest animal experimentation”, Daily Bruin, https://dailybruin.com/2019/04/26/activists-march-through-westwood-and-ucla-to-protest-animal-experimentation, April 26, 2019, Accessed September 22, 2021
Peryer, Marisa, “Animal rights activists target med school research”, Yale Daily News, https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2019/04/25/animal-rights-activists-target-med-school-research/, April 25, 2019, Accessed September 22, 2021
Samms, Andy, “Animal Rights Initiative protests against animal testing at the UW”, The Daily of the University of Washington, https://www.dailyuw.com/news/article_e3ffcf4a-3fa5-11e9-9ddc-c75415f34344.html, March 06, 2019, Accessed September 22, 2021
McKinney, Roger, “PETA renews protest of animal testing at University of Missouri”, Columbia Daily Tribune, https://www.columbiatribune.com/news/20190425/peta-renews-protest-of-animal-testing-at-university-of-missouri, April 25, 2019, Accessed September 22, 2021
Pike, Sarah M. “Radical Animal Rights and Environmental Activism as Rites of Passage.” Journal of Ritual Studies, vol. 27, no. 1, Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew J. Strathern, 2013, pp. 35–45, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44368863.
