LettersLetter from Jenny Moxham to the Editor: Altruistic Beings - 12 Dec 2011
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Letter from Jenny Moxham to the Editor: Altruistic Beings - 12 Dec 2011

The Age
12/12/11

NOW that we have proof that rats are compassionate individuals who will do all in their power to prevent the suffering of fellow rats (''Rat cunning: an open - and - shut case'', The Saturday Age, 10/12) how can we possibly justify inflicting so much pain on them in laboratories?

And how can we justify inflicting pain on broiler chickens, battery hens, pigs in sow stalls, dairy cows or any animal, for if rats have empathy these other animals almost certainly do too. If we continue to deliberately inflict pain on our fellow creatures, despite this knowledge, could it prove that they are more altruistic than we humans are?

Jenny Moxham,
Monbulk

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