Analysis of My Rhetorical Situation

Aside from the English 109H Section 8 class, my audience for this project consists mainly of pet owners, veterinarians, or anyone who has interest in the wellbeing and fair treatment of our companion animals in the United States.

The issue of Kristen Lindsey, a former veterinarian who purposefully killed Tiger the cat, may be too graphic for anyone under the age of about 12. The specific part of the audience for this story that is most interested would consist of male and female cat owners ages 12-100, particularly owners who allow their cats to roam freely outside of their house, or even off their property, since that is where Tiger was killed.

That being said, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, political views, gender, etc would not matter as much in this issue, because most human beings claim to be against animal cruelty regardless of these factors. The audience for my particular story may read other stories regarding animals, be they happy or sad. Stories like this can be found all over the internet and social media, but some main sites would be Huffington Post and Veterinary News.  

Groves, Alison, "Cats-Animals-Kittens", 01/25/2014 via flickr, Attribution-NoDerivs-2.0Generic

The purpose that I have for this project is to educate my audience on a tragedy that seems so ridiculous and irrational, yet has happened. There is a certain "shock" factor because Kristen Lindsey is (was) a Veterinarian. The very person that is supposed to help heal animals killed a cat in cold blood. To me, that is like a doctor who murders a human. Personal views aside, it just seems to defy logic.

When this controversy was first beginning, there was confusion on whether the cat had an owner or not, whether Lindsey did it on purpose, etc. My intention is to clarify all of these discrepancies and set the series of events straight.

As the author of this project, I feel especially qualified as a Veterinary Science major and animal rights advocate. I have dedicated my entire life to this passion and dream of becoming a veterinarian, helping animals in any way that I can, and I was initially intrigued by this story because I do not understand how someone can go through excessive schooling and dedicate years to getting this "vet" title, and then turn around and shoot a cat with an arrow.

Personally, I like animals WAY more than I like humans, but I try to value our lives the same. I might be making an assumption here, but I believe most people would be more concerned with this issue if Kristen Lindsey had shot a human in the face with an arrow. To me, that cat had just as much right to its life as you and I do.

I think I am more qualified than others in this class to write on this issue because to me, this is murder.