Friday, September 7, 2012

8. With Their Food Scarce From Drought, More Animals Try Dining in Town


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/us/their-food-scarce-from-drought-animals-dine-in-town.html?ref=science

Jack Healy wrote on September 6th about the growing number of animal sightings within city boundaries. Healy starts out by giving examples of bears looking for food in campsites and stores. He claims that the cause of this movement toward cities is the intense drought which has destroyed the main sources of food for the animals, causing them to look for their food elsewhere. Healy presents more examples of animals stealing food from fields, kitchens, garbage cans and even in some cities across the country. Bears are the ones that have been causing most of the problem, destroying personal property since they need a lot of fuel for the winter’s hibernation. The government has asked to increase elk hunting in order to have more food for the others and bears are being euthanized because of their destruction. Healy says that Hurricane Isaac has helped lessen the effects of the drought in the southern areas but the problem is still severe. Healy ends with an example of a man shooing a bear who does it successfully but the animal just moves on to steal food from another bar, indicating that the situation of controlling the hungry animals is really difficult.

The purpose of the author was to inform his readers about the increase of animals moving toward cities in search of food and that measures are being taken to lessen the problem, though it is a slow process. He gives plenty of examples to show that animals are invading cities more often and shows some statistics to support his point. He also uses quotes from officials and citizens to ensure the credibility of his information and also to support the difficulty of the problem. This use of sayings from other people makes the article more interesting, avoiding the tediousness of simply saying what was happening. Healy was successful in informing his readers especially because of the many examples he presents to describe the situation.

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