F.P. Stephenson's spurious argument in support of the outdated practice of using performing animals in circuses is to compare wild animals with those that have been domesticated for centuries.
It is an established fact that wild animals suffer to some degree when kept in captivity and made to carry out unnatural behaviours.
There is also a question of what dubious training methods are used to curtail their natural instincts. Some of us
with longer memories remember the "training" methods employed by Chipperfields Circus.
I'm afraid that I can't subscribe to his/her personal moral code that it is acceptable to deliberately inflict unnecessary suffer on other sentient beings.
The same arguments pursued by F P Stephenson were also used against moves to abolish slavery just a few centuries ago, on the grounds that the well-being and suffering of "lesser species" did not deserve any consideration from the superior white race.
Frank Prince-Iles
New Monks
Farm Cottages
Mash Barn Lane
LancingNOTE: All letters must include a name and address which can be withheld by request.
Write in to Readers' Letters, Worthing Herald series, Cannon House, Chatsworth Road, Worthing, BN11 1NA, or email the Herald.
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