The interaction of all creation

I was delighted to see that Mr Kevin McNamara wrote about animals in your issue of September 9. It is a subject neglected and misunderstood by many human beings.
Catholics are not alone in this. In fact Catholics have to their credit a Study Circle running a magazine The Ark which endeavours to find out the truth about the treatment of animals.
We do not neglect the socalled "pets," without which many town-dwellers would have no knowledge of animals at all; but we do look, particularly, behind closed doors — in the
slaughterhouses and laboratories, and away from civilisation, in the jungles and Arctic wastes.
We try very hard to find the best alternatives so that we can help to remedy the abuses. We are very glad to see that Mr McNamara finds no pleasure in English Blood Sports, and we feel sure he must be with us over the disgrace of the Spanish bullfights which are
associated in so many people's minds as particularly "Catholic."
Our membership is not large, but it does go into hundreds, and we get to know each other pretty well. We find the hoary idea about excluding children if you pity stray animals quite untrue. Perhaps we have specially capable families, but some of them seem to be able to cope with their children, their elderly relatives and distressed animals all in the day's work.
Two elderly ladies I know visit other elderly people regularly and take their dogs out for a run, so giving a reasonable life to the dogs and great comfort to the old people.
We have a husband and wife who, having launched their own five children, have now adopted two coloured ones, all happier for the animals of the establishment.
A person with Mr McNamara's knowledge of the world must realise that the exaggerated case he mentions is due to human failing — and the animal often loses by it. No dog enjoys being too fat — but humans make money out of causing them to become so.
Many of the things we have learnt have a direct bearing on the needs of humanity. There would be far more food for the Third World if we did not eat meat.
The grain bought for intensively-reared animals could be much more economically used for human beings. This, however, means effort and adjustment for ourselves, and of course it is easier to blame the dogs and cats I
But it is quite impossible to give much idea of our work in a letter. We are concerned with trying to understand the interaction of all God's creation
— human beings, animals, trees, earth, air, fire and water — and reducing suffering and enriching life wherever we can, and we welcome everyone of like mind.
A free copy of our magazine, The Ark, will be sent on request.
Catherine Hodgson Acting Editor, The Ark Church Stretton, Shropshire.
I hope Kevin McNamara (September 9) is as staggered with the following statistics as he was with the cost of feeding pets. Estimated total expenditure in the United Kingdom as quoted by the House of Commons in March, 1977: Alcohol —0,980 million.
Smoking — £3,106 million.
Gambling — £500 million.
It seems strange to me that animals, being created by God, should be denied a decent burial if so wished by their owners, and that eating should be a privilege confined to the human species. Most of the food given to pets would hardly be suitable for human consumption anyway.
If Mr McNamara delved a little deeper into the pet population he would find that many cats and dogs were unwanted or abandoned by thoughtless people and taken in by unselfish, and not selfish, people as he maintains. It is easy to pick on animals as a scapegoat, for without the gift of speech, they can never retaliate verbally, a fact that man uses to his own advantage.
People's excessive consumption of meat, and not the feeding of pets, is partly the cause of the starving two-thirds of the world, which surely Mr McNamara must already know.
It's a sad world when the importance of animals is judged only by what we can get for them, without a thought of what we can give in return for their loyalty, devotion, courage and long suffering at the hands of man.
As every animal welfare Bill is flung out by our politicians like so much jetsam, can we hope one day to have men and women in Parliament who care enough about their lesser brethren to see that animal welfare Bills are passed, and their articles to the Press give the animals the good publicity they deserve. Incidentally, I doubt if hunted animals care much about the dignity of Man! May Rocking Hon Secretary, The Catholic Study Circle for Animal Welfare London, El&