Battery hens

Press, 26 October 1982, Page 24

Battery hens

Sir,—l would like to ask Andrew Steven who or what is being hurt by the continued use of unnecessary, cruel methods. Innocent creatures, obviously; but also ourselves and our young people, because what we are saying, in effect, is that it does not matter who or what you abuse, as long as you make a profit, or get what you want. Surely these attitudes are of extreme “social importance”? Surely, for ages, man has been caught in the grip of pitting himself against the land, the forests, the animals, other races, the weather, etc., under the illusion that “winning” required that the “victim” be forced into man’s own (commercial) way of doing things. But at last we are seeing a gradual return to the harmonious, effective laws of nature, more humane alternatives, and the capacity for compassion, long-repressed by systems whose sources of revenue demanded that people “achieved" a suitably callous heart. — Yours, etc., N. W. MILANOVICH. October 23, 1982.