There have been so many film cartoons now--from Bambi to Babe--that imagine animals that talk and behave just like people that some people seem to believe such stories reflect truth.
In England, a school teacher has been sacked for helping a class raise a lamb and then sell it for meat. Some parents apparently were horrified. The London Telegraph writer Charlie Brooks has the right angle on it, of course. Animals are part of God's creation, and we are their stewards. They are not our counterparts, however.
When I hear sentimentalists suggest that we should not eat animals, I often ask, Why not? They eat each other, don't they?
Which reminds me, Discovery Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith's book, A Rat is a Pig is a Dog is a Boy, is now out from Encounter Books. It will tell you all you need to know about animal welfare versus "animal rights." The former should be our concern as humane, civilized beings. The latter is a tendentious invention.
