\n<\/p>\n
As a vegan of nearly 40 years, I agree with much of what Dean Weston says about animal welfare (Letters, 30 December). But as a former civil engineer, I cannot overlook the massive category mistakes in his assertion that the government\u2019s animal welfare strategy \u201ctreats animal suffering the way Victorian engineers treated cholera. Add a valve here, a filter there, and never question the sewer itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victorian engineers did not \u201ctreat\u201d cholera, but were arguably more effective than the medical profession in dealing with the disease. They reduced the prevalence of cholera precisely by constructing adequate sanitation. \u201cThe sewer itself\u201d was the solution, not the problem.<\/p>\n
Weston says: \u201cIf animals matter, stop eating them.\u201d This is a cri de coeur (with which I concur), not a policy for meaningful change. Victorian engineers can inspire us to make structural changes in animal welfare that really make a difference. We were eating roast chicken one Sunday when my son was six and my daughter three. He, even then a vegetarian, looked at her plate and said: \u201cHow can you eat animals?\u201d \u201cI\u2019m not eating animals,\u201d she replied. \u201cI\u2019m eating meat.\u201d He then asked: \u201cWhere do you think meat comes from?\u201d She answered: \u201cFrom Marks & Spencer\u2019s \u2013 I bought it with Daddy.\u201d My son, now in his 40s, is still a vegetarian, my daughter still a meat-eater. Perhaps if young children were made more acutely aware of how animals end up on their plates, more would choose not to eat them. Can 2026 be the year that we start catering for cool vegans and vegetarians? However much I wish to give up meat, my digestive system objects very painfully to eating anything containing chilli or mustard. I cannot be the only person who would like to see foods flavoured with other herbs and spices beyond the constant offerings of vegetarian curries and chilli dishes. Please, please cater for cool vegetarians. Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <\/em><\/strong>email<\/em><\/strong> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <\/em><\/strong>letters<\/em><\/strong> section.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a vegan of nearly 40 years, I agree with much of what Dean Weston says about animal welfare (Letters, 30 December). But as a former civil engineer, I cannot overlook the massive category mistakes in his assertion that the government\u2019s animal welfare strategy \u201ctreats animal suffering the way Victorian engineers treated cholera. Add a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[19540,10759,21790,17873,16713],"class_list":{"0":"post-40561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-hurrah","9":"tag-meat","10":"tag-sewers","11":"tag-veganism","12":"tag-victorian"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Rev Canon Dr Rob Kelsey<\/strong>
Norham, Northumberland<\/em><\/p>\n
Jennifer Jenkins<\/strong>
London<\/em><\/p>\n
Sheila Cole<\/strong>
Evesham, Worcestershire<\/em><\/p>\n