Madam, - Amid the feelings of warmth and generosity and the frenzy of activity that is so much a feature of Christmas, I would ask your readers to spare a thought for the many animals and birds that give their lives unknowingly so that we may enjoy the season to the fullest.
Spare a thought for the pig whose short (about six months) life on a factory farm was lived (if that indeed is a word that can be appropriately used) and abruptly ended for our enjoyment.
Spare a thought for the hundreds of millions of factory-farmed turkeys worldwide whose short, stressful lives will have been sacrificed in the months leading up to Christmas.
Was not the message and example of Christ a compassion one? How many nuns, priests, bishops and deans will sit down to a meal this Christmas that has its origins in such un-Christ-like suffering, a meal that utterly compromises their lifelong dedication to compassion? The vast majority, of course.
Let's not wait to take our lead on this issue from the clergy, for we'll be waiting a long time. Let's simply say: "No killing for me this Christmas." Now that would be a novel way of celebrating Christ's birthday! - Yours, etc.,
GERRY BOLAND, Animals in Crisis, Keadue, Co Roscommon.