Torturers find it easy to leap species barrier

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.

Acts of abuse are about power and control regardless of the species of the victim, and crossing the species barrier is but a small step.

Thinkers as far apart as Thomas Aquinas and Albert Schweitzer warned about the link between violence towards human and non-human animals. Research in recent decades has firmly established this link.