Crowe 1

Billy Crowe
Mrs. Fielding
WRTC 103
9 Oct. 2015

Doing what the Government Wont: Rhetorical Strategies in Jennifer Capriolis

Dog Therapy Helps People Recover from Emotional Illness

Military veterans who suffer from the mental illness PTSD (Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder) are unable to get the help they desperately need because the
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will not subsidize service dogs for them.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, PTSD is an anxiety disorder
that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which physical
harm occurred or was threatened. In Dog Therapy Helps People Recover from
Emotional Illness, Jennifer Caprioli of the US Army in Fort Huachuca affirms that
the non-profit organization Operation Wolfhound trains service dogs are efficient
in reducing the effects of PTSD for free. Caprioli describes three soldiers that say
their treatment for their PTSD has been ineffective, explains how Operation
Wolfhound trains its service dogs, and depicts how the dogs benefit people with

Crowe 2
PTSD. The rhetoric of both Jennifer Capriolis Opposing Viewpoints argument
and Billy Crowes companion PSA relies heavily on ethos, pathos, and logos to
portray the neglect to veterans with PTSD and why the VA should subsidize
service dogs for them.
Army Veteran Alicia Miller and her daughter Rhiannon Miller founded the
non-profit organization Operation Wolfhound to receive viable donated dogs
and train them with professionals. Then the dogs train their owner and the
professional so the veteran can further instill more personal commands on their
own. The dogs are free of charge and are expected to live as long as 15 years.
Caprioli states that the service dogs are highly capable of reducing the effects of
PTSD. In fact, Alicia Miller also suffers for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and
says, [The service] dog works 84.5% of the time, which is 30.5% more effective
than her medication. Jennifer Caprioli targets the reader who has family or
friends that may know someone that struggles with PTSD because they will
demand that the Department of Veterans Affairs to cover the cost of treatment for
mental illnesses like PTSD. She organizes the article into three sections: the
introduction, information about Operation Wolfhound, and how the dogs provide
mental and moral support.

Crowe 3
Caprioli expresses ethos and logos extensively throughout her article
though she references pathos the most. She plays to the audiences emotions to
evoke anger from the government not helping to pay for the suffering if its
soldiers. Ken Costich, a Former Army Colonel, that has dealt with post-traumatic
stress disorder symptoms [for 40 years]. After spending three weeks with his
new service dog Bandit, Costich says This dog [did] more for me in three weeks
than any medication any doctor has every prescribed He senses when I'm
having nightmares, and will wake me up [by nuzzling] me. These emotional
quotations are fluent through Capriolis article that helps her to establish and
maintain a link between her and the reader. Her target audience is directly
exposed to the kinds of experiences that they might have already been through.
This helps them resonate with her topic and encourages them to take action.
They also are examples of vivid description because of their use of imagery and
the five senses.
In addition to pathos, Caprioli includes a vast assortment of logos in her
writing. At the end of the introduction she quoted Alicia Miller about her opinion of
the effectiveness of the dogs, her medication, and therapy. Miller said,
Medication works 50 percent of the time. Talk therapy, alone, works 30 percent
of the time, and dogs work 84.5 percent of the time. This quote was likely

Crowe 4
captured from an interview but the origin is not included. However, she also
provides much more in depth information about Operation Wolfhound including:
Borzoi pups were chosen because of their ability to think independently
and be protective without being aggressive. They have the potential to live
up to 15 years, and are quiet, large dogs that are able to physically
support a person. Operation Wolfhound puts strict parameters on service
dog candidates. For instance, they will not accept a dog that is more than
4 years old. Miller also said all dogs must come from parents that were
screened for genetic diseases and temperament, usually back four
generations. The reason is that a person with PTSD, who is emotionally
vulnerable, would not deal well with an early death of their service animal.
These facts and details about the program not only provide logos to Capriolis
argument, but they also give her a bit of credibility because of the accuracy of the
information. In the 3rd section of the article she asserts more details about how
much these dogs cost and why a single person or his/her family should have to
pay for it.
The dog and training are provided to the veteran, at no cost. Miller notes
that this is important because an adult service dog candidate with basic
training would cost the veteran about $5,000 and the training would add up

Crowe 5
to $40,000. A dog receives at least 50 hours of training before going to live
with their veteran, which is required by the International Association of
Assistance Dog Partners [IAADP]. IAADP is a nonprofit organization that
represents people partnered with guide, hearing and service dogs.
The audience will see how much help and support is going to be required to
change the Veterans Affairs mind on covering service dog treatment for mental
illness. $40,000 is unreachable for most military families and they will suffer the
burdening problems of PTSD all together.
Throughout her work, Caprioli uses people, organizations, and facts to
support her credibility because she seems to not have very much in this line of
business except for the fact that she has PTSD and is a writer for the US Army. A
few of the sources she cited were Co-founder of Operation Wolfhound, Alicia
that have in sum suffered from PTSD for more than 75 years, and finally the
International Association of Assistance Dog Partners which is a Nonprofit
organization that represents people partnered with guide, hearing and service
dogs. Quoting these sources has increased Capriolis credibility and displays her
determination to create an accurate, credible, and believable article. She brings
forth her own personal credibility by being a member of the military which directly
created trust with her target audience.

Crowe 6

Figure 1. The VA has denied PTSD veterans coverage of the most effective
treatment. Billy Crowes PSA shows that a soldier and his dog are bonded for
life and rely on each other. The intended audience is anyone related to or
knows someone that suffers from PTSD and cant pay for a service dog. The
dominant features of the ad are the red to symbolize pain and blood that will
be spilled if the veteran cant get help. Also the soldier and his dog are meant
to show how dependent they are on each other to live a happy life. The
statistics are there to put the problem into the perspective of those who think
it is unimportant.

Billy Crowe has a lacking amount of ethos but he does include sources
that do contain ethos. He utilizes sources like the PTSD Foundation of America
, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to giving back to soldiers, and
James Madison University, a respected university in Harrisonburg Virginia.

Crowe 7
Crowe develops tone to educe certain emotions to his audience. For example, he
includes five person figures to give a visual image to the statistic following it. His
use of sad, but calm language shows that he is not mad but wants to see
change. His diction is basic so his audience can easily grasp his concept rather
than becoming confused with more advanced wording. The PSA is very clean,
professional and accurately displays his viewpoint. Crowe links his PSA to a
nonprofit organization called the PTSD Foundation of America.

Crowes PSA presents logos but is also not overbearing with paragraphs
and words that will cover up the image which is what most people will remember.
He does this by including a statistic about how serious PTSD is nationally. He
also incorporates some detail as to what the PSA is about and how his viewpoint
on how the VA is unfairly treating PTSD sufferers. His argument is arranged so
the audience gets a small part of all the aspects of his argument. The audience
gets some background on the problem, a statistic on how it affects soldiers, and
an image showing what the goal is.

His Public Service Announcement contains many examples of pathos and

portrays them in different ways. Crowe uses the color red in some of his text
because it is the color of blood, which is prevalent on the battlefield. His image

Crowe 8
shows a smiling dog and a serious soldier carrying it. This image makes the
audience feel happy and shows them that the soldier cares for and has emotional
ties for it. Anyone in Crowes target audience that owns a dog may also relate to
how the soldier feels. He uses the phrase Dont wait long enough for this mental
illness to turn physical has multiple innuendoes to support his ethos appeal. In
one sense, speaks to the audience and wants them to act fast and support his
argument. He also is talking to the Veterans Affairs Office and wants them to
change their decision fast before people start killing or hurting themselves. At that
point the soldier will be physically harmed and can be covered by the VA. Crowe
is stating that the VA should chance their decision to cover mental illness or wait
long enough until the mental wound of PTSD becomes a physical one. His choice
of wording contributes a strong central point of ethos to his PSA.

Billy Crowe and Jennifer Caprioli both show how service dogs can help
those with PTSD and that it is becoming a terrible problem in the United States.
However, Caprioli goes more in depth on the topic since she has more to work
with in terms of space and development. She also has more credibility than
Crowe because of her relation to the military and her vast research on the topic.
Crowe lacks in the verbal area but supersedes Caprioli visually and emotionally.

Crowe 9
Crowes PSA adds the information about the VA Office and how it unequally
values mental and physical wounds. The PSA also deepens the understanding of
Capriolis verbal argument by flooding the audience with powerful examples of all
three appeals. Crowes PSA is the stronger argument only because it provides
the powerful visual aspect that Caprioli does not have. She has the most detail
and knowledge on the dogs in her program and how to train them effectively.

Crowe 10
Works Cited
Caprioli, Jennifer. Editorial "Dog Therapy Helps People Recover from Emotional
Illness." (2015): n pag. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web.
Lesley Alderman "Using Hypnosis to Gain More Control over Your Illness," New
York Times, April 15, 2011.
Brent Bauer, ed. Mayo Clinic Book of Alternative Medicine. 2nd ed. New York:
Time Home Entertainment, 2010.