Madam, - Have we really come to this? Are we so reduced in our humanity and in our judgment that one woman's account of her thwarted shopping trip for a black fur jacket is considered acceptable material for intelligent Saturday reading in The Irish Times?
In her piece of October 9th, Rosita Boland unselfconsciously parades the current preoccupation with ego, individualism and vanity at the expense of any deeper thinking, let alone ethical or moral considerations.
To justify her annoyance at the disappearance of rabbit-fur coats from a chain of stores and her anger at the animal activists whom she blames for this, she describes the rabbits as "mere animals". What a scary word that "mere" is. It has been used throughout history to justify exclusion, discrimination and violence to "mere" women, and to explain away the murder, dislocation, slavery and colonisation of "mere" savages.
It removes the requirement for understanding, compassion and empathy by relegating the "mere" to the status of perpetual inferior object. It is now, as it has always been, the refuge of the intellectually lazy who wish to justify exploitation through an easy verbal signal.
There is now wide and fascinating research on the human-animal relationship and, in particular, on our treatment of animals. Irish Times readers deserve exposure to these complex and important debates rather than serving as the audience for a tantrum. - Yours, etc.,
Dr DEIRDRE WICKS, Canrawer, Oughterard, Co Galway.
Madam, - Let us hope for Rosita Boland's sake (Weekend Review, October 9th) that reincarnation does not exist. Otherwise, she may well come back as a rabbit, and end up as someone else's fur jacket. But at that stage, of course, she will be only a "mere animal", so it won't really matter, will it? - Yours, etc.,
MARIE ALTZINGER Sweetmount Drive, Churchtown, Dublin 14.