Your columnist John Battle MP (June 7) poses as the
reasonable man with a sense of "proportion" on animal welfare
issues. He admits that anthropocentricism - a better term is
speciesism - is nowadays out of date and that it is "wise to insist
on a fuller creation centred. . . perspective".
Nevertheless his article as a whole is speciesist, and does not
answer the question in the eye catching caption "why pigs are
penned" or the question "why did the government delay so long in
applying a remedy?" (answer: love of money).
Racism has been well nigh exorcised from the church. Speciesism
still persists in some of the church's malodorous nooks and
crannies. It is the aim of CSCAW to achieve the exorcism of this
sibling devil too. It was Litvinov, the Soviet ambassador to London
who, in the 1930's said "peace is indivisible." So is compassion.
The animal welfare workers about whom John Battle complains are
well aware that it is useless and hypocritical to expect peace on
earth for guilty mankind while making war on innocent non-human
creation on whatever pretext.
Richard Bocking
Catholic Study Circle for Animal Welfare
Catholic Herald (28/6/91).
