Letter: Animal aid

IN YOUR second leader (23 August) you refer to "anthropomorphists of a sentimental disposition" and later to "the world of animal activism". Between the lines I read that sensible, right-thinking people are not animal-rights activists and vice versa.

Among human characteristics are the ability to experience pain, fear, hunger and thirst and a preference for freedom. There is nothing anthropomorphic about attributing to other animals the characteristics they so obviously share with us. And it is no more "sentimental" to campaign for animal rights than it is to claim rights for human groups that also have no political voice and are easily exploited - say children or the mentally disabled.