Animal rights
Sir: In his remarkable article 'A Christian shield for animals' (6 April) the Reverend Professor Andrew Linzey, senior research fellow in the theological and ethical aspects of animal welfare at Mansfield College, Oxford, sponsored by the International Fund for Animal Welfare to the tune of £250,000, seeks to show a Christian link with the animal rights movement. Since childhood, we have all sung the beautiful hymn, 'All creatures great and small . . . the Lord God made them all.' So, as well as beautiful, appealing creatures like seals and badgers, He also made rats (one of the most sensitive of animals) as well as cock- roaches and poisonous snakes. What are the rights of these species and does Profes- sor Linzey suggest that they too have immortal souls?
During the 1992 general election cam- paign, Professor Linzey's sponsor, IFAW (which is not a registered charity in this country), conducted a widespread and gory newspaper campaign in support of a ban on fox-hunting. But the proposal to slaughter millions of perfectly healthy cattle in order to restore 'consumer confidence' in beef has been met with a deafening silence by the whole animal rights movement, includ- ing IFAW. Where are the worthy demon- strators who blocked the roads to the docks in order to prevent the export of live cattle and sheep? If indeed the slaughtered ani- mals have souls, perhaps Professor Linzey can console himself that they will die as martyrs to the human need for animal pro- tein. The difficulty of course is that cattle have insufficient powers of reason to appre- ciate the glory of martyrdom. Or perhaps its lack of reaction to the BSE crisis shows the inherent hypocrisy of the animal rights movement?
Robin Dunn
Lynch Mead, Minehead, Somerset
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