The Rhetoric in The Dog Delusion

Award-winning and well-respected actor Johnny Depp once said “The only creatures that are evolved enough to convey pure love are dogs and infants!" April Pedersen’s essay, “The Dog Delusion” communicates the other extremity of the matter. Pedersen expresses in her essay how dog owners have taken care of their beloved pets to the extreme. She understands how dogs are a great resource of love and compassion but don’t think their lives should interfere with that of their owners, whether that's through medical bills or expensive food. April Pedersen's essay relies too heavily on her opinion to appeal to her audience's needs, which causes her rhetoric to be ineffective.

With the lack of facts and overuse of opinion, the author uses her personal beliefs to inaccurately convey the message. At the beginning of the essay, Pedersen explains her personal beliefs about the effect of owning a dog. Pedersen defines that as “There was a time when ‘Dog is my co-pilot’ was merely a fun slap at the ‘God is my co-pilot’ bumper sticker, and it was funny precisely because nobody would ever think to elevate their dog to such a height”(225). She is implying that everyone agrees with her statement, that no one would go to an extreme for their dogs.  By implying this statement, Pedersens lacks support and conveying on the other side. Lots of people don't’ think twice about bringing their dogs in their cars. They love to see their floppy ears and crazy tungs flailing out the window. Pedersen then took the belief of dog owners to religious inequality. Pedersen explains that “Then there's the CEO who said he doesn't trust clients who don’t have pets. How sadly similar to the religious who say they don’t trust nonbelievers”(226). It’s comments like these that are offensive to both pet owners and different religious individuals. This strays away from the main topic of dogs' place in society. By including so much of her opinion, her appeal became more and more ineffective.  To back up her argument, Pedersen interviews a newspaper columnist who believes that “Dogs are for people who can’t have kids”(226). The columnist is referring to the LGBTQ+ community as well as people who struggle with infertility. People that have the inability to have children are usually sensitive to the topic and this could be a hard comment for them to read. Even though dogs do allow for those people to have the companionship and sense of family that they can't have naturally. This still limits the rest of the population, saying that dogs are only for the many that have the inability to have kids. 

April Pedersen’s literary article “The Dog Delusion” demonstrates how the importance of a dog's care has gone to the extreme and over the top. She uses her opinion and personal beliefs to ineffectively mess with the needs of her audience. The comments made in the article are directly offensive to pet owners, the LGBTQ+ community, infertility patients, as well as many religious individuals. As one who owns and has owned many dogs, I could never imagine giving my dog anything but the very best. Pedersen, as a dog owner herself, doesn't view her dog as one of her kids, just a pet. The views people have on dogs and their style of life differentiates, but in the end, every dog will always accept their owner for who they are and will love them unconditionally.