Madam, - Among the shocking reports of the ill-treatment of Iraqi prisoners to emerge in recent weeks, it wasn't surprising to discover that pictures of tortured and mutilated animals were also found in the Abu Ghraib prison. Acts of abuse are about power and control regardless of the species of the victim, and crossing the species barrier is but a small step.
Thinkers as far apart as Thomas Aquinas and Albert Schweitzer warned about the link between violence towards human and non-human animals.
In the United States, the FBI has found that a history of cruelty to animals is one of the traits that regularly appear in its computer records of serial rapists and murderers, while a recent UK study showed that people who abuse animals are five times more likely than others to commit violent crimes against humans.
With violent crime on the increase, one might think that for purely selfish reasons alone society should take more seriously the need to promote humane treatment of non-human animals. Sadly, this is far from being the case. Pitifully inadequate laws exist to deal with people who mistreat animals - in this country the legislation is almost 100 years old. As a society we sanction institutionalised cruelty on a scale almost too massive to comprehend.
- Yours, etc.,
NUALA DONLON, Knocknacarra, Galway.