Front page pig placement all wrong

RE: Esther the pig sows sympathy (Oct. 25)

I can’t help questioning The Spec’s decision to run a front-page article surrounding the support of 100,000 people to help a pig.

I am glad that the owners continued to love and care for their pet after she turned out to be quite a lot larger than the micropig they had requested. But I have to say, people must have greater causes to support in this world than providing financial support for someone’s pet pig.

I heard news today that a friend, a brilliant young doctor in Madagascar, recently contracted plague in that financially strapped country in a state of health emergency. She is better now but still working to help others afflicted. I’ve also heard reports from friends in Madagascar that some hospitals in the capital are only just now being reconnected to the water supply, and their Ministry of Health’s emergency team has only just received a laptop. Think about that, how do you stop a disease outbreak in a hospital disconnected from water?

Think of the crisis in Syria, and think of the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh, and the many more human crises in need of our attention and financial support.

It’s 2017, and the world isn’t as small as it once was. And before the vegans call me callous, I was a vegetarian for many years, and I believe in animal rights. But as a society and as media literate folks, I think we need to start considering our priorities, especially front page priorities. Allison deVries, Hamilton