I WAS intrigued by the letter from Gerry Boland (September 11) in support of the Green Party’s opposition to hunting.

AS the Christmas season approaches, many Irish people will be getting ready to order their dead birds and cuts of dead flesh for the dinner table.

“YOU’RE wasting your time protesting here,” a circus ringmaster informed me. “We don’t have any wild animals. We only have horses and an elephant.”

Animal rights activists have lodged a formal garda complaint over the alleged mistreatment of elephants at a circus currently performing in Dublin.

WITH World Animal Week just over (free publicity for the pet food companies aside), it is timely to draw attention to the appalling cruelty involved in fur production.

WHAT a sad reflection on the state of animal welfare in Ireland that protest at the abuse of animals at Ballinasloe Horse Fair recently should have been left largely to journalists and members of the public.

AMONG the shocking reports of the ill-treatment of Iraqi prisoners, it wasn’t surprising that pictures of tortured and mutilated animals were also found in the Abu Gharib prison.

HAVING seen the disturbing and cruel footage of farm workers stuffing live birds into sacks for killing in Asia, I feel man will never learn.