Vanerka 1

Jessica Vanerka
Mr. Newman
English 101: Rhetoric
8 October 2014
Puppy Mills
Almost every family in America has one or more dogs in their household, but many dont
know where their dog has come from. The sad truth is that a lot of the dogs that we fall in love
with at the pet stores come from puppy mills. Modern dog magazine featured a story on puppy
mills and how horrifying they actually are. Mary-Jo Dionne, in her article Puppy Hell: The
Horrors of Puppy Mills uses saddening photos to appeal to the readers emotions, explicit
imagery and shocking logos to successfully explain what a puppy mill is and argue against them.
When we think of puppies most think of happy cute little furry things running around.
However, puppies that come from puppy mills do not get this freedom. At the top of her article,
Mary-Jo Dionne places two pictures of puppies locked in cages, looking depressed. This causes
the reader to feel for the puppies, and want them to have better conditions. Even if the reader
knew nothing about puppy mills to begin with, or didnt even read the whole article, those two
pictures cause you to feel for the puppies, and know that something needs to be done about
puppy mills.
Aside from the pictures, Mary-Jo Dionne uses her own feelings against puppy mills to
appeal to the emotions of the reader. Rather than giving a legitimate definition of a puppy mill,
she defines them as cruel, rude, ugly, etc. She goes on to further bash the mills and persuade the
reader to feel the same way she does.

Vanerka 2

Puppy Mills provide awful conditions for the dogs that are stuck there. While some dogs
get out of puppy mills and go on to live long lives with their forever homes, some dogs never
know anything outside the mill. ...[S]tuffed five young Rottweiler puppies into a birdcage and
left them there. these puppies continued to grow and, eventually, too large to be extracted from
the cage, had to be euthanized through its bars. With statements like these Dionne paints a
picture of these mills in the minds of readers, further proving that these dogs live terrible lives.
Mary-Jo also stuns her readers with the facts she provides.