[The following timely letter appeared on Good Friday, in the columns
of the Welshman. Would that every daily paper had
published a similar on that day ! - Ed.]
Sir, - When looking at the conventional pictures allegorical of
Christianity, representing the gentle Saviour carrying a lamb tenderly
in His arms, one is struck with the contrast the orthodox Christian
exhibits in his treatment of the lamb. He, forsooth, hands it
over to the butcher to cut its throat and hang it up, half-skinned, head
downwards, with its vitals fully exposed in our streets, its blood
dripping on the pavement; and one is tempted to exclaim, "Look on this
picture and on that ! !" I contend, Sir, that lamb slaying, especially
as a semi-religious function or "fetish," as at this season, is a gross
piece of barbarism. This view is not the mere fad of a fanatical
Vegetarian, but to my own knowledge even butchers themselves have
deprecated the practice. One that I was told of had to turn his head
away whilst cutting his victims' throats. Two others, latterly, at a
meeting of mine, admitted that it was a waste of animal life to kill
lambs and calves. How many people, I wonder, who eat lambs' flesh on the
festival of Easter, would do so had they to kill the animals themselves?
Very few, indeed. Then they have no moral right to depute others to do
it. The whole fabric of the atrocious custom of slaughter rests on one
point, namely, it is only justifiable if it can be proved to be a
necessity, and that proof is wanting. Your readers would, I am sure, be
convinced, were they to read with an unprejudiced mind such publications
as those issued by the Order of the Golden Age at Ilfracombe, or the
Vegetarian Federal Union, Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, London.
Yours truly,
G .C. Wade,
Provincial Secretary, V.F.U.
From The Vegetarian dated May 5, 1900.
Reproduced with Thanks to the Vegetarian Society.
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