Having the meat and eating it too

Louise Vella, in her letter entitled Is There No Limit (July 19), writes: "There is no doubt that these penniless Africans are a burden on all of us, except, possibly, those employers who exploit them. The Prime Minister and others have given figures that indicate that illegal immigrants cost the government about Lm10 million a year. Ms Buhagiar may be happy to pay her share of that sum by way of her taxes. I am not".

Interestingly enough, the European Union, through its Common Agricultural Policy, pays billions of euros in farm subsidies to producers of meat. Ms Vella may be happy to pay her share of that sum by way of her taxes. I am not, since meat to me means the unnecessary killing of sentient non-human animals. I personally believe that those billions of euros would be much better spent in humanitarian aid to refugees and in trying to solve this humanitarian crisis. But, alas, I have little say in the matter.

But consider this: If those millions of euros were indeed redirected from the subsidy of meat products to humanitarian aid, where would Ms Vella find any affordable meat to purchase and eat?

If Europe went vegetarian or vegan, this would provide millions of surplus euros currently used for meat subsidies, which might, in turn, help solve Malta's immigration problem, apart from sparing millions of non-human animals from a life of suffering ending in a violent death. But alas, people like Ms Vella want to "have the meat and eat it too".