THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 7, 1994 TAG: 9410070014
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 33 lines
In arguing for more humane conditions for animals raised for slaughter and eventual human consumption, V. A. Kurtzhals, R.N. (letter, Sept. 30), with a fervent plug for vegetarianism, says a society that ``tolerates senseless violence toward sentient animals'' will never change for the better. Even if we were able to persuade most humans of the truth of those words, how would we persuade other predatory animals to cease mutilating and destroying cute little animals weaker than they?
The worst offenders are house pets, such as my daughter's cat Belle, which not too long ago came into the kitchen carrying a pitiful little mouse. Everyone knows what heartless cats do to mice before they eat them. The same cats are also merciless in their treatment of birds which they slyly stalk, pounce upon and eat, littering my back yard with the feathers of innocent robins, doves and blue jays. And what are we to do with robins yanking angle worms from the ground? If anyone doubts the sentience of angle worms, let that doubter mount an angle worm on a fish hook and watch it writhe in pain before it is torn apart by ravenous fish.
Human beings are animals that often eat other animals. What else is new in nature?
LELAND D. PETERSON
Norfolk, Sept. 30, 1994 by CNB