ABC of animal rights (1)

Animal Rights' Kenneth Cassar confirms (On Human And Non-Human Animals, February 17) the chasm between animal welfare and animal "rights". Animal Rights is clearly against any human use of animals. This means a definite "no" to killing animals for meat consumption, medical experiments, use of fur and leather, hunting, fishing, and all other human activities affecting animals adversely. Just as an example, whatever improvements governments might make to the abattoir for the animals' benefit, AR will ultimately be satisfied only if the abattoir were closed down for good. If AR actually believes in what it preaches, it logically must insist that Malta's Constitution be amended to include the right to life, to liberty, free speech(?), freedom of worship(?), and other rights, of animals such as pigs and bulls, which AR actually considers to be "persons"!

Mr Cassar avoids the argument that mankind is unique for being created in God's image. For him, man is unique only in the sense that a lion or an eagle or any living individual of a species is unique. He is simply trying to reduce humanity to just its animal nature to the exclusion of its spiritual nature: a "reductionistic" attempt made by abler people before him with disastrous consequences. Mr Cassar wants to keep "a secular moral debate secular". He might as well. Re-writing the Bible, he says that Adam and Eve only had male children. However, Genesis 5:4 says that "He (Adam) had other children" i.e. apart from Cain and Abel. So the possibility of female offspring is not excluded. In fact Genesis 4:17 says that "Cain and his wife had a son". Incidentally, the name Adam in Hebrew means "mankind".

Mr Cassar compares the Last Supper of Jesus Christ and his disciples at the Passover feast with an imaginary visit by Nationalist Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to a Labour Party club: a half-baked comparison. If he cares for a correct analogy, he should depict Dr Gonzi, together with his Nationalist Cabinet, celebrating Independence Day on September 21 with a formal dinner at the MLP headquarters!

Although a re-reading of the Bible with scholarly annotations might be distasteful to Mr Cassar, he could at least peruse serious "secular" works, as e.g. C.S. Lewis's The Abolition Of Man, as an antidote to his reductionism.