Letter: What rural fury?

Sir: M P Adams raises well-aired arguments against "animal rights" (letter, 7 August). If the granting of rights to humans was restricted to those who have responsibilities, pay taxes or vote then babies, juveniles and the mentally ill would presumably be excluded.

Animal rights are a different issue and refer to the "five freedoms", including the right of freedom from stress, fear, injury or disease, from hunger, thirst and from discomfort and the right to live in as normal an environment as possible and to express their natural behaviour.

Animals do in fact pay a price for any rights we humans deign to bestow upon them. Domestic animals reward us with their loyalty and companionship, wild animals enrich the environment in which they live whilst farm animals (the main concern of animal rights campaigners) pay the ultimate price for their very existence - slaughter at an early age. Is it too much to ask that we acknowledge their sacrifice by trying to make their brief lives as pleasurable as possible?

PETER ALLEN

Worthing, West Sussex