Dear Editor:
In response to my two letters on rats someone posted a comment on your website in which he noted how chimps are abused in animal research and then ridiculed me for caring about the rats. What does one thing have to do with the other?
In fact it’s disgusting to lecture me about the cruelty of animal research when no one in this country has written more about this subject than I have. For example, I had a guest column published in the Bangkok Post (“A Cruel Hoax”, August 22, 2007) in which I condemned animal research. And last year I had a letter in the “Nation” in which I condemned animal research in general and the abuse of chimps in particular.
But the point I was making in my Mailbag letter is that unpopular animals such as rats suffer just as much as other animals. But it’s not just the rats I’m concerned about. For example, how many of you readers can say you gave one minute of thought to how much the animal you ate last night suffered before he ended up on your dinner plate? Even animals that people pretend to care about such as dogs and elephants are horribly abused.
I realize that by exposing human cruelty I make many people angry. But I learned a long time ago that I can choose to be kind or choose to be popular. But I can never be both.
Eric Bahrt
