"Creature Comforts"

I almost always appreciate a relevant anecdote to complement an article in journalism. They’re an effective resource. The anecdotes are often the bits that lurk in our conscience after reading a piece and if they’re ambitious, can tap into our compassion and encourage us to read from our humanitarian self instead of our logical self. Which is why I struggled with Skloot’s opening story; I couldn’t decide which way to read it. At the mention of Halloween Night, “children dressed as vampires and witches,” and a miniature horse named Panda, my logical side couldn’t help but interrupt and think it seemed like the opening scene of a new Stephen King novel. It feels like fiction, which might be a sign of a good writer, but as I hone my attention on the rhetoric of this article I am surprised by how important I’m learning it is for an anecdote to resemble raw truth to prevent questioning readers from distraction. However, it’s not Skloot’s fault we’re encouraged from a young age to be skeptical of our news sources and I’m certainly not saying Skloot fabricated these details to get a good hook. (It’s all a bit nitpicky, but man…the power of a good anecdote).

On the other hand, Skloot’s ability to deliver the facts so well and without bias makes for an informative piece. As is the case with most issues both sides are feeling a bit victimized and it’s important to understand why, the service pet owners for lack of equal treatment in the presence of their pet and the businesses because they can’t help but worry they’re being taken advantage of. Stephanie makes me understand the problem better when she says in her blog post that people with fake service animals ruin the credibility for everyone. Which leads be to believe Frieden’s idea makes the most sense. He says, “Some cases have to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, you can’t legislate fine lines – that’s just not functional law.” As much as I support a wide variety of species for service it’s important to understand the concerns the businesses have in hosting these different species and though a case-by-case approach might be more inconvenient, it would help to better satisfy the concerns of both sides on any given issue.