Are national zoos really affecting animals lives in negative ways or is

this position just an outlandish view taken with no knowledge. The author,
Les Schobert, has been a curator for LA and NC zoos and has been in the zoo
industry for over 30 years. He uses various stylistic and rhetorical devices to
help persuade his stance that the keeping of elephants in zoos is totally
unjust and considered to be a national embarrassment. His main argument
stems from the idea that the area that elephants are required to live in inside
of a zoo are unmerited and doesnt leave them enough space to proceed to
live a healthy life as they would in a proper environment such as the wild. He
uses parallel structure to further inform his stance on the problem with zoos
and their relation to keeping elephants.

The author throughout explains the wrong doings with zoos and how
they affect the loves of elephants in negative ways. He exposes that in 2000
their zoo was responsible for euthanizing an African elephant that was
suffering from advanced arthritis and now they want to do the same for an
Asian elephant suffering from sever arthritis. He makes the argument that
zoo's must change their approach on how they keep their elephants and
strongly supports his article with facts about the actually needed space
elephants require. He reinforces his argument with an authenticity of
knowledge for the subject matter and confesses the reality of how much
space they actually have.

The author uses parallel structure to create a sense of repetition of

important ideals that help strengthen his argument. In the fourth paragraph
of the essay, the author uses the word We as the beginning of each
sentence. This paragraph demonstrates the need for elephants to have
plenty of space in their environment and to not be enclosed in a tight
location as they are in a zoo and should be living in plenty of acres worth of
land. He starts each respective sentence saying We now understand, We
have learned, and We have come to realize. Each of these sentence
starters lead up one another to persuade the need for the treatment of
elephants to be just and and these are important ideologies that would help
too preserve the health of elephants.

The author is viewed as credible and therefore justifies the use of ethos
in this piece of writing. In the introduction of the paper it is known that the
author has spent more than 30 years working in zoos and in the field of
caring for elephants. He has also been a curator of both LA and NC zoos.
The author also says in his paper that When I began my zoo career 35 years
ago, much less was known about elephants than is known today. This lets
the audience understand that the author has been in the field for many
decades and realizes that there has been a change in the amount of
knowledge that is accessible today to the common people about elephants
than was known many years before. It gives him more reasoning for his
claims and gives the audience a more substantial reason to trust the author.

The author also uses various facts and statistics throughout the paper to
demonstrate that he did his knowledge when writing this and has hardcore
statistical data to back up his argument.
In conclusion, the author is seen as credible as he has expierence in
working with zoos for over 30 plus years and understands the change that
has been going in regarding the environment that elephants need to be in
their healthiest state. His use of parallel structure also further informs the
audience that the need for proper living area is necessary for elephants and I
do believe that the author does a successful job of representing his argument
and backing it up with correct claims.