THE cavalier killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe has rightly caused considerable international outrage (“US dentist who paid to kill Cecil the Lion is condemned”, The Herald, July 30). It is good to hear that there have been criminal charges applied to some of those involved, although the instigator, the US dentist and long-time animal slayer Walter Palmer, remains safe in the knowledge that the US Government would not even contemplate extradition on such a “trivial” matter. Hopefully, however, he will spend his life away from Africa and animals there will safe from his need to kill for fun.
Not that we in Scotland have any reason to be self-righteous about the killing of innocent creatures as a leisure pastime. Every year in rural Scotland hundreds of pheasant eggs are imported in incubators, then quickly hatched and released into the wild with practically no survival skills at all. Not all that many fall into the hands of shooters though, as most are predated or killed on the roads. I have seen some of the most beautiful creatures imaginable splattered about Argyll roads. We still have a long way to go here in Scotland also on the subject of animal rights.
Alan Clayton,
Westfield,
Letters Way, Strachur, Argyll.
OUTRAGE has been expressed on a global scale at the senseless death of Cecil the lion. I only wish the same concern was shown for the millions of animals who are senselessly slaughtered daily for their flesh.
Both Cecil and the animals in the slaughterhouse die to fulfil no higher purpose than the fleeting pleasure of humans. The nameless animals killed for human consumption every day may not have the global following of Cecil, but their lives are of no less value.
Caroline Campbell,
1 Ashton Road, Glasgow.
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