Letters to the editor Chickens
As your correspondents Jenny Moxham and Michael Morris correctly point out, chicken is the most popular meat and because of this the birds are the most abused species in our cruel animal food chain (The Timaru Herald, January 2, Broiler Chickens).
They suffer because economics – raising them as quickly as possible at the lowest possible cost – is the prime concern of the industry.
Chickens have been selectively bred to grow to 2kg in 30-35 days rather than 64 days, resulting in a variety of metabolic disorders and skeletal problems and huge suffering.
Over the growing time the floor of poultry sheds is not cleaned, so ammonia accumulates causing lung, skin and leg lesions from decomposing litter and faeces. Large sheds hold up to 60,000 birds that are considered crops or batches, and at slaughter they are still babies.
I agree wholeheartedly with Jenny Moxham, we can help prevent this cruelty by adopting a kinder, healthier vegan diet.
Diane Cornelius South Australia
Civil obedience
Half a century ago Rosa Parkes, a black woman, refused to give up her seat for a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in the United States. She was promptly arrested for breaking the law.
This was one of many acts of civil disobedience which marked the civil rights movement in America. Civil disobedience was a tactic developed by Gandhi in the fight against injustice to coloured people in South Africa and perfected in the struggle for freedom from colonial rule in India. It was based on the simple precept that it was not wrong to break an unjust law i.e. go against the Government.
It could be expensive in that it eventually cost Martin Luther King his life when he was assassinated.
Situations are not always black and white however, as your extract from The Guardian pointed out in Wednesday’s The Timaru Herald .It seems in Britain most people support draconian measures to fight Covid, but the Government is reluctant to apply them, that is, the population is for civil obedience.
Of course with our obvious advantages we have had a very good ‘‘run’’ with Covid and one of the pluses is people’s complying with lockdown etc – civil obedience. This advantage is not necessarily confined to small countries.
In America with its appalling Covid statistics, one large prestigious university has ordered all on campus to wear face marks or be instantly dismissed. They have not had a single case of Covid. (I must remember that next time I have to board an Air New Zealand flight ‘‘muzzled’’). Civil obedience or civil disobedience, there is a place for both.
Dennis Veal
Timaru Trump
Having criticised President Donald Trump and his cowardly enablers for the past several years, I am not surprised by this latest abomination by his gang.
I believe he must be removed from the White House, under force of arms if necessary, and incarcerated. To do otherwise will perpetuate his attempt at dictatorship. The Gorgon must be beheaded.
Clive Shaw Timaru