I CANNOT agree more with Dr Charles Hayward’s letter in yesterday’s Herald (“Gross cruelty under guise of culture”). I don’t know whether Jeremy Maggs was trying to be humorous or just being sensational to try and resurrect his flagging career – I mean who is Jeremy Maggs?

Animal cruelty is very much on the increase in this country and more and more of it is being perpetrated in the name of “tradition” or “culture”– I know, I serve on the front lines. The first fruits festival killing of the bull is supposed to prove how “brave” these warriors are.

Torturing animals does not make you a man. Torturing animals does not make you brave.

Torturing animals makes you a criminal and reduces you to the lowest life form in society.

Children of today are so desensitised due to the crime and violence they watch on TV and the video games they play, that cruelty to animals doesn’t even register as a blip on their radar screen. We need to go back to basics, and teach our children respect and reverence for life and for all living creatures.

We need to teach compassion to all creatures and to those less fortunate than ourselves. It is not OK to instruct a child to get rid of a dog you no longer want by stoning and beating it to death.

It is not OK to get rid of a “problem animal” by hanging it in a tree and then beating it to death. It is not OK to drown unwanted animals and it is not OK to pour boiling water or oil over an animal because your bitch is unspayed. The list goes on.

This is the kind of stuff SPCAs deal with every day. All it takes is one phone call and the animal you no longer want will be collected and euthanased humanely.

I agree with Hayward that our society is regressing instead of progressing and sadly it is the animals who suffer the most. They have been reduced to “things” – creatures that are disposable and who some believe do not feel pain, stress etc.

We need to get our priorities right in this country. We cannot live with one foot planted in the last century when it is convenient, but then at the same time having the other foot planted firmly in this century of progress and modern times.

Man needs to progress and so too does his attitude to the creatures that share the world with us. – Annette Rademeyer, King William’s Town

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I WOULD like to thank Hayward for a letter well written and emphasise that cruelty in any form, to any living being, whether human or animal (particularly the helpless innocent) can surely never be cloaked under the guise of culture or religion (educated or not), but only ever under the psychologically abhorrent behaviour of a society that at times makes one want to weep. – Sanwynne Beyleveld, Port Elizabeth