Sir: Andrew Linzey plainly feels defensive about his Oxford grant.
I have acknowl- edged that the total value of the grant which I quoted in your columns last year was incorrect. I was wrongly informed that £250,000 from the International Fund for Animal Welfare was exclusive of the contri- bution made by the college. £250,000 still seems to me a great deal of money to be spent by an animal welfare charity on this matter. I hope it will be well spent. But as to the question whether animals have souls, I quote from the Mansfield College brochure introducing the fellowship: 'His- torically animals have been viewed as beings with no mind, reason, self-conscious- ness, rational soul . . . the consequence of this intellectual legacy is everywhere to be seen.' And again: 'Only comparatively recently in the history of ethics have issues about animals and ethics received the criti- cal attention they deserve.' I leave your readers to decide whether my deductions from these paragraphs constitute 'fan- tasies'.
Michael Sissons
Peters Fraser & Dunlop, 503/4 The Chambers, London SW10
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