What "A Change of Heart about Animals" is about

In the article A change of Heart about Animals by Rifkin he claims that our fellow creatures are more like us than we might ever have imagined but also that you do not have to be human to feel emotions. The fact that they feel emotions has changed many people's views on animals. It is then said that companies such as Burger King and KFC have started researching into emotional, mental, and behavioral states of the creatures that they use. From the studies that have been done on pigs it has been found that they crave for affection and are easily depressed when they are isolated or kept from playing with one another. There have been big step made by countries to outlaw and ban pig stalls but also requiring people with pigs to provide them with a certain amount of human contact daily. Also to support the claim that creatures are more like us studies have been done on other types of animals also like on New Caledonian crowns and on a gorilla named Koko. In the findings with the crows researchers were able to find out that they re smart because Betty which was one of the crow's when left with only a straight wire at an instance bent it just like the hooked wire and then snagged the food and out of ten trials she did this nine times. Koko the gorilla is just as impressive as these crows because she was taught sign language and has managed to master more than 1,000 signs and understands several thousand's English words. Just to prove of her intelligence on human IQ tests she scores between 75 and 90 which is really impressive for an animal. Rifkin thinks that animal rights should be included in the constitution but also that some should be changed in a way that they will protect animals more than they already do. In order to protect animals more, Germany has guaranteed animal rights into its constitution. Rifkin denies that statement that says that animals behave by sheer instinct and claims that they in fact don't but are rather taught by parents just like geese teach their goslings their migration routes. Rifkin agrees with the teachings of law courses on animal rights but also with the animal rights lawsuits that are being filed due to painful laboratory experiments, and the raising of animals in inhumane conditions.