[jambutty]

The human being is an omnivore and as such has evolved to eat meat and vegetation although some people make the choice of not eating meat. So I make no apologies for eating meat, wearing leather shoes, jackets etc as a by product of killing an animal for its meat. The same goes for using duck feathers to fill an eiderdown. This practice has been going on for tens of thousands of years the world over so if anyone needs to put their brain in order it is you staggeringman. I eat meat, fish, poultry and various, if limited, vegetables. In other words a normal diet.

Racehorses, like greyhounds have been bred for one purpose and one purpose only – to race and to satisfy mans need to beat his fellow man and gamble on the outcome. The horse or dog has no say in the matter.

Dogs and cats have been domesticated for thousand of years staggeringman and I agree that birds should not be kept in cages, although it would be cruel to just free a bird that had been bred in captivity. And you are right we shouldn’t fish for fish in the name of sport. There is nothing wrong in fishing for the table but to catch a fish, throw it back and call it sport is immoral.

It wasn’t all that long ago at Cheltenham I think, when several horses HAD TO BE PUT DOWN because of injuries that they received during races Debbie J. If they hadn’t been racing they wouldn’t have got injured in the race.

We don’t use horses in battle any more nor do we use pit ponies. What about the white horse at Wembley? It wasn’t being raced around to try and beat some other horse to a winning post. It was doing an excellent job of crowd control. You really must be clutching at straws if that’s the best that you can come up with.

By the way if you believe that religious nonsense there was only one donkey that carried Mary. Joseph walked alongside.

Man has always used animals to help where man’s abilities have been too limited. Large animals like horses, reindeer and elephants with their superior strength and stamina have always helped man in his daily labours and been rewarded with food and shelter although in days gone by cruelty was rife. Dogs with their infinitely superior sense of smell are used to aid law enforcement but they are not raced to see which is fastest.

It is a great pity that someone cannot express their views on a subject without someone casting aspersions about their mental abilities and castigating them for doing so.