Letter: Animal wrongs

Sir: Although it would be difficult not to feel the impact of Barry Horne's decision to starve himself to death for his cause, those who campaign for the rights of animals - particularly the extremists, such as Mr Horne, who resort to violent action - miss the point.

The greatest harm inflicted by human expansion is not any pain inflicted on individual animals during experiments, but the continuing extinction of vast numbers of species -mainly insects and therefore not an emotive subject for campaigning - by human expansion worldwide. This tragedy is far greater and breaches a higher right: that of species not to be wiped out. Those who cry out about "torture" would do better to protest against genocide.

CHRIS KEATING

St Albans, Hertfordshire