Rhetorical Analysis Of Buying Your Pet From The Pet Store

Rhetorical Analysis of “The chilling reasons you shouldn’t buy your pet from the pet store”

“The chilling reasons why you shouldn’t buy your pet from the pet store” written by Ben Kerns is a persuasive article that dives into the issue of pets who are up for sale at pet stores and what they had to sufferer on their way there. Ben states in his article these pets at puppy mills are in cages with wire flooring, stacked on top of each other. which allows breeders at puppy mills to breed females continuously with little to no break between litters. Ben then talks about how puppies receive deadly diseases at puppy mills such as heart and kidney disease, epilepsy, parvovirus and mange. When the owners of these pet stores receive the puppies from puppy mills, they use antibiotics to mask the signs of the puppy’s condition in order to sell the puppy. Ben continuous stating that these puppies are once again stacked in wire cages on top of each other in a cage too small for one puppy to be comfortable but at pet stores

you often see two or three stuffed inside together. These puppies in return will get sick with a kennel cough, roll around in their own feces, sit next to it in their cages, and sleep in their own fluids at night because there is no room. We don’t know how this affects a puppy’s physical health or even their psychological health. These are all signs that these puppies are not up for adoption, but up for sale, the store is all about profit and not about finding these puppies a good home. Now knowing what these animals had to go through at pet stores, “90 percent of the puppies at pet stores are from puppy mills and not shelters” (Kerns). This article effectively persuades its readers with ethos, pathos, and logos with the argument that you shouldn’t buy your pet from the pet store.
The Kerns uses great amount ethos, or credibility, by inserting many facts about this topic and various links related to this issue scattered throughout the article. This gives the reader the ability to gain more knowledge about this problem and dive deeper by one simple click on a mouse. The 15 different links you can click are all very creditable websites such as The Dodo.com, Humansociety.org, Paws.org, Nopetstorepuppies.com, Onegreenplanet.org, Frriendsofanimals.org, and ASPCA.com. This makes Kerns article more creditable because Kerns knows a lot of articles related to his own article, and wants the reader to read them too by putting those articles links in with the text. The article is credible once again because the article isn’t written by the company like some articles are, but written by respected writer Ben Kerns. Kerns gains more creditability through the end of the article where he gives you a detailed imagery and facts about the puppy’s life inside a puppy mill and pet store. Quotes like these where Kerns is talking about his experience in an overcrowded puppy mills “the cages are typically wired to allow feces and urine to fall through. The mothers are bred constantly until they're deemed too frail to have children, at which time they're killed.” And “Other diseases prominent among pet store puppies who come from mills include heart and kidney disease, epilepsy, parvovirus and mange. Pet store owners have been known to use antibiotics to mask the signs of these conditions in order to sell puppies”. The many quotes, links, and facts Kerns uses throughout his article proves that he is very credible and that persuasive with the information he gives you.
The Pathos or emotion in this article is very powerful. If you ever had a puppy or dog, you can get very emotional reading this. Kerns starts off with a powerful tittle “The “chilling” reasons why you shouldn’t buy your pets from a pet store” (Kerns). The word “chilling” can scare you and even frightening you from buying your pets from a pet store. Kerns also put a huge picture of a puppy who appears to be very sad and distraught behind a cage, which is suggesting the puppy is at a puppy mill or a pet store. Right under the titled the Kerns states an emotional quote “Next time you’re tempted to stop at a pet store, remember all the ways animals can suffer on their way there” (Kerns). I feel a very powerful emotional connection to this quote because after reading this article, you’ll learn all the ways that these puppies do suffer before going to the pet store, which makes you not want to go inside pet stores anymore. Another way the Kerns uses great pathos in his article is the links and where the links take you. Every link you will click in this article leads you to a website with an article talking about puppies at pet stores or puppy mills, but the first thing you will see when the website loads are very powerful, disturbing, and even very emotional pictures of animals looking extremely sad, sick, and distraught, trapped in dirty cages. The images shown are extremely disturbing and will make the reader think of your puppy or pet. Kerns uses all of this to add great Pathos persuasiveness in his article. The reader would never their puppy or any dog to be in that situation and constantly seeing images sad and in pain which is because of puppy mills and pet store will make you never want to go inside one of them again.
Kerns is very consistent in his article about puppy mills and pet stores. The logos or logic stays the same throughout the text. He never jumps to the “other side” view of pet stores or puppy mills, just stays constant with his idea that they are very bad and awful for pets. Kerns was also very consistent with the website links, which were all about the bad side of puppy mills, and pet store. Kerns used of logic, facts, links, and stories in this article is very effective to the reader and proves the readers that this pet store and puppy mill stuff is pretty horrid. The statistic fact the was very effective logos Kerns used was “Research indicates that 90 percent of puppies found in pet stores come from a puppy mill rather than from a shelter”. With facts like these he put in his article, and the facts the articles he links us to, are extremely convincing to the readers that dog shouldn’t be in puppy mills and pet stores shouldn’t fund puppy mills.
Kerns good use of genre in his online article ultimately made it way more persuasive. The large image of the puppy crying in his cage right above the title will grab readers right when they look at it. The way Kerns also highlighted the links that lead to other websites talking about puppy mills in red is very persuasive as it gives readers easy access of knowing where to click to see other websites persuasiveness, facts, and experiences with puppy mills and pet stores. Kerns tone in his online article is persuasive as the word choice is very descriptive and sends you a picture in your head. Example of this is the Kerns quote describing what the puppies condition is in his cage “Puppies should never be left to roll around in their own waste and in some pet stores you might see feces sitting in a pile right next to the animal” (Kerns).
Kerns persuasive use of ethos, pathos, and logos will persuade readers to believe that puppy mills and pet stores are hell on earth for these puppies.

Since this article came out on July 19th, 2015, efforts were made to stop puppy mills. Many organizations like National Mill Dog Rescue, North Shore Animal League America, Hearts United for Animals, American Society for the prevention of Cruelty to Animals, The Humane Society of the United States, and many others are coming together and trying to fight pet stores from buying puppies from puppy’s mills and stopping puppy mills in general. Ultimately the article is extremely successful with the rhetorical strategies used in the text, which has persuaded me to be more aware and smarter in what’s really happening in these pet stores, puppy mills, and even behind closed doors, where these pet stores are getting their pets and how bad are being mentally and physically abused at these puppy mills and pet

stores.