Letter: Animal cruelty plagues nation

Friday, Jan. 26, 2001 | 9:31 a.m.

There were many items in the newspaper lately regarding our treatment of some animals in this country -- evidently Americans still "don't get it." Those who do work hard to educate and try to make the public realize that animals have rights, feel pain just as we do, and that their lives are not worthless.

The fact that some people still wear fur is an example. Knowing how animals suffer horribly so that a selfish human being can unashamedly ignore this horror, and continue this very old-fashioned practice, is truly hard to believe. Maybe in the faraway past the excuse was that we "didn't know any better" -- but that certainly is not true today.

The shocking picture of the new president holding up and "admiring" a huge branding iron shows clearly how some Americans still consider animal abuse just a fact of life -- something to be accepted. The branding iron still in use today in more backward states is one of the worst instruments of animal torture ever invented.

Holding a red-hot iron to struggling animals and searing their skin in this terrible manner is heartless and unnecessary. New technology provides many painless methods of identifying animals.

The Sun is to be congratulated for printing the many intelligent letters regarding the wearing of fur and other forms of animal abuse.

We realize that it is an uphill battle -- but we are very grateful for your help in creating public awareness of the need to treat animals in a humane manner.

The Sun is truly "the newspaper with a heart."

RUTH DIMAGGIO