3 August 2001

In Defence of animals

Sir: Natasha Walters pokes fun at the wooly-mindedness of the animal welfare movement. (” We’re all kooked by wooly thinking, 1 August) but if she thinks her simplistic logic puts her on a moral high ground, she is mistaken. There were plenty of people who defended the slave trade before it was abolished.

The campaign against angling goes back to the time of Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher and vegetarian who used to buy fish from the fishermen and throw them back into the sea. The case for animals is strong because they cannot shout for their rights, or perhaps we do not hear their cries. As Gandhi said, ” The moral progress of a nation and its greatness should be judged by the way it treats its animals”.

NITIN MEHTA
West Croydon, Surrey.