Letter: McCruelty that's hard to swallow

GIVEN THE propensity for McDonald's to attempt to conceal its activities by litigation, I can understand the muted tone of your feature "Everyone loves a McNasty" (4 April). What is not recorded is that McDonald's did not appeal against the judge's finding that most decent people about to bite into a Big Mac would find it troubling that the company had been "culpably responsible" for cruelty to laying hens, guilty of "cruel practice" in relation to broiler hens and guilty of cruelty to sows. Mr Justice Bell found that allegations of cruelty "in the rearing and slaughter of some of the animals that are used to produce [McDonald's food]" had been justified by the defendants and were "true in substance and in fact". Not everyone loves a "McNasty", or even a Big Mac.

DAVID MASON

Newcastle on Tyne