Week 4 Deegan

In chapter three Safran Foer describes the word “downer.” A downer is an animal that collapses from poor health and cannot stand itself back up. This word really stood out to me because of how easy it is to cure these animals. He mentions in the text that all they need is some water and rest in order for them to regain their health. When reading this, I could not wrap my mind around the fact that so many animals die because of this, when very little effort is required to help them. I couldn’t understand why it is so easy for people to neglect these animals, and just get rid of the dead body. It angered me to know that so many innocent animals lives are taken away because the humans that care for them don’t see it as a priority. At the end of the description, he talks about how it is unrealistic and not practical to save all the animals. I think that if there were laws made to prevent downers from dying so easily and that farm workers had to pay attention to them, the problem could be solved. He also mentions that any individual that close to death needs to be saved or mercifully killed. I agree with this because no animal deserves to suffer and should be taken out of its pain. Something needs to be done to handle this situation better.