Jeremy Rifkin, a human activist and writer of "A Change of Heart About Animals", talks about how animals are not treated with care and respect. He makes a valid argument about how some animals are not treated kindly, or as if they did not have any pain or emotions. Rifkin shows evidence about how animals are cunning and intelligent. However, he is not supported enough to say that animals need to be treated like humans. Animals are still savages; they are raised differently than humans. They may have similar simple functions, but the human brain is far more complex. I agree with Rifkin that animals are smart and have emotions, but I disagree about how he implies that animals should be treated like humans. He was right when he talked about treating animals with respect and care, but he is incorrect in regards to animals having the same intelligence level as humans, and therefore need to be treated as humans.
In the article, Rifkin presents a strong argument on the subject of animals having feeling and emotions. Animals have brains which receive and process information about how they think or feel about a certain scenario. Purdue University conducted a study on pigs' social behavior and found that "the lack of mental and physical stimuli can result in deterioration of health" (Rifkin, 2003, pg. 59, par 4), when isolated or denied playtime with each other. Pigs feel depressed and alone when deprived physical contact, much like how humans feel. Even though humans and animals have different brain functions, they still feel depressed when left alone. Feeling depressed or feeling any emotion about a certain case is a major part of how the human brain works. By default, animals have a similar basic structure as humans, and are able to process thoughts and emotions. Animals should be treated with a greater amount of kindness than they are normally treated because animals detect pain and emotions the same way humans do.
