14th November, 2002
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Indaver Replies

Dear Sir,
We at Indaver are appalled at claims made in a Letter to the Editor on the 26th October 2002 which linked the company to elevated levels of dioxins in chicken eggs in Belgium. Similar claims made in a press release issues by CHASE have since been retracted.
The company strongly refutes any link to these elevated levels, which were found during recent dioxin sampling undertaken by the Belgian Authorities.
The Food Safety Authority in Belgium has confirmed that there is no link between Indaver and these elevated dioxin levels which were found in a number of regions in Belgium.
Yours sincerely,
Jackie Keaney
Communications Manager
Indaver Ireland

Violence Towards Animals

Dear Editor
A huge volume of research exists, which shows a strong correlation between substantial animal abuse in childhood and later personal violence to humans. This research should alert parents, social leaders, health workers and the legal system to the importance of animal cruelty as a potential indicator of disturbed family relationships and future aggressive behaviour towards humans.
Respect for animals is respect for human beings and hurting animals hurts human beings. When an adult harms a child in a household with a dog or cat or other animal all too likely the animal has been abused. When social scientists study violent criminals including serial killers, a similar pattern emerges. Before killing or assaulting human beings these criminals victimised animals. It is a fact that people who are violent towards animals rarely stop there.
Irish society needs to be alert to fact that a person or what ever age who engages in animal cruelty be it through legal avenues like hunting, shooting or through illegal acts of cruelty is starting down a path to transferring that desire to hurt onto a human victim. Not every animal abuser will make the jump from animal to human but the conditions are pregnant with risk. Those who hunt animals are addicted to the sense of controlling the situation in which an animal is terrorised and killed. The more drawn out the hunt the better the excitement of finally killing the animal.
In domestic violence terms the abuser enjoys drawing out the amount of physical, emotional and sexual violence perpetrated on his victim. Then one day bored with the game he goes to far and gets caught or worse snuffs out the life of this victim without a glimmer of a conscience.
The link between animal and human abuse is well established. Society needs to accept and deal with the fact that those who kill animals for fun have a serious medically untreated mental illness. The urge to torture and kills animals for fun is no more normal than the desire to inflict physical, mental and sexual abuse on a human victim.
Yours sincerely.
John Tierney Campaigns Director - Association of Hunt Saboteurs, PO Box 4734, Dublin 1

Mix-up in Baby, Case at St. Finbarrs
Dear Michael,
My wife entered a Cork City Hospital for tests as a day patient. Meeting with her consultant later, he told her blood tests were clear. She informed him she did not have any blood tests.
It transpired a patient with a similar Christian and surname was a day patient on the same day my wife attended and she had blood tests taken. Her file was mistakenly confused with my wife's.
It sound formal but numbers rather than names seem the safest way to go. Life is a roulette wheel, all of us aree mere numbers.
Neil O'Donoghue
Douglas

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