CRUELTY AND SPORT
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Sir F. des Voeux says he does not defend " the suffering of animals for his own amusement." Yet, if I rightly under- stand him, he does defend hunting, which seems to me exactly to fall under that description. He then proceeds, if I rightly understand him, to confuse killing animals with torturing them, which is precisely the two acts which I carefully distin- guished. I never condemned killing animals. If we did not kill some animals we could not live ourselves. I entertain-the opinion, which I share with many others, that to inflict un- necessary suffering upon an animal before, or in the process of, killing it is a wrong we have no right to subject an animal to, and is also injurious to the character of him who does it. This precludes me from hunting, but does not preclude me from eating animal food.—I am, Sir, &c.,
STEPHEN COLERIDGE.
The Ford, Chobhanz.
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