Good news – as fur as it goes

How wonderful that “Israel bans sale of fur to fashion industry, first country to do so” (June 11). This is consistent with Jewish values, since Jews are to be rachmanim b’nei rachmanim (compassionate children of compassionate ancestors), emulating God, Whose compassion is over all His works” (Psalms 145:9), and consistent with tsa’ar ba’alei haim (the Torah mandate to treat animals with compassion).

However, I wonder why most Jews are ignoring the many abuses of animals on factory farms. Now that there are plant-based substitutes with appearance, texture, and taste indistinguishable from meat and other animal products, why continue diets that involve so much cruelty to animals, are unhealthy, and contribute significantly to climate change and other threats to humanity, risks for future pandemics, and the wasteful use of land, energy, water, and other resources, thereby violating many basic Jewish teachings?

RICHARD H. SCHWARTZ, PH.D. Professor Emeritus, College of Staten Island