Community Crime

The topic I have chosen for today’s post is something that affected my community and myself. A veterinarian was arrested for the mistreatment of animals in his care, keeping them locked in unclean cages and keeping a dog scheduled for euthanasia, who had a bone degenerative problem alive for blood transfusion. This interested me because I considered taking my dogs to that clinic before, but now I’m glad I decided against it. Animal cruelty and the treatment of animals has always been at the forefront of my mind because I have had pets for as long as I can remember and because animals can not speak up for themselves when they are being mistreated. I will be looking at two articles on this subject to analyze how effective each article at reaching their target audience.

I read two articles on the Camp Bowie Clinic, one by the New York Daily News “Texas vet arrested for animal cruelty denied medical care to his owndog, 4 other pets: police” and the other from the local newspaper The Star Telegram “Fort Worth vet arrested on suspicion of cruelty to animals”.

I read the Star Telegram article first. I thought the article was very informative. I felt that the information was so detailed because it was written towards the people in the Fort Worth community. The news directly affects them since this animal cruelty situation happened in the city they live in. The article had a lot of direct quotes form the accused vet, the nurse who accused him of animal cruelty, and patients who went to the clinic. I felt that the quotes help paint a full picture about what happened at the clinic and how people are reacting to the news that a trusted vet mistreated the animals under his care. The article gives it’s audience a general overview of the events that occurred at the clinic hitting on all the high points without bogging the reader down with heavy information and making them what to continue through out the article. This works in the articles favor because it breaks down into two sections focused on the vet and the patients, which gives a lot of emotional depth hearing the differing opinions about what happened. I also was very smart to have both sides directly compared because it reads that the article is not trying to sway your opinion on what happened by presenting you with all the evidence. I thought the article was very effective at targeting and reaching the local community in the article.

The other article by the New York Daily News is a national publication. The events that took place at the Camp Bowie Clinic shocked so many people that the news spread creating national interest. The article caters to its wide audience incredibly well. The article is filled with pictures of animals being rescued, sad depraved animals, and the accused vet. The pictures are very dramatic and strike at the heart of any person who has a slight inkling of care for animals. The writing of the article is filled with the grim details of how the animals were treated and the condition they were found in. the details made my stomach turn in horror, but the grimmer and more interesting the more people will read it. Because this is a national article the people reading want to be entertained by the news so they don’t get the big picture form the writing alone so the article gets creative. The article contains a local news video so that they reader can get back ground info quickly without having to read it. The video also adds to the informational background helping to fill the gaps of the very emotional writing. Though the article tries to be entertaining it still try to provide all the information it can by adding the link to the report filed against the vet, making this article successful in connecting with its national audience.

I think one way this type of animal cruelty can be prevented in the future is closer inspections by the state boards of veterinary medical examiners and more frequent checks on the hospitals and clinics. Another way this could be prevented is anonyms tip lines and privacy for the people presenting accusations of abuse because one of the problems the nurse had with coming forward is she was afraid of the repercussions. I also think proof of euthanasia presented to the owners so that they know that their pets have been treated.

            The last thing I want to talk about is the class I wrote this blog for, my English class Crimes Against Nature. Before I really did not care much about the environment unless it directly affects animals, plants don’t really interest me. This class helped me understand that problems with the environment effect not only animals but myself as well. Not only did this class teach me about the environment but also it helped my writing and the understanding of all types of rhetorical documents, from scholarly articles to movies and websites. It was a very eventful fulfilling class.