Sir, - As local election fever sweeps through the country the candidates are setting out their views on various issues to entice local people to vote for them. Like a political mantra, the usual issues such as housing, the state of our roads, city and country development, etc. are trotted out, but one issue that fails to get a mention is animal welfare/rights.
With a few notable exceptions, local politicians have failed to embrace the issue of animal welfare/ rights and its position as a serious moral issue which concerns a majority of people in the country. Many of our existing politicians who are now seeking re-election find the issue of animal welfare/ rights outside their moral and intellectual compass.
Are we ever going to get politicians at local and national level who accept that animals are entitled to the same rights and respect that we humans expect to be given to us? Is it too much to hope that we can have a society in which the rights of animals are accepted and protected and where any form of animal abuse is simply not tolerated? Like child abuse, there is no acceptable level of animal abuse. Only through legislation can a difference be made to the life of an animal.
I would appeal to readers to raise the issue of animal welfare/ rights when an aspiring politician attempts to get you to vote for him or her. Ask them what they going to do to put this issue on the political agenda. If they say that human welfare issues must receive priority, tell them that they are wasting your time looking for your vote. - Yours, etc., John Tierney,
Wildlife Research Officer, Irish Council Against Blood Sports, Mullingar, Co Westmeath.