ANIMALS AS ACTORS

I wish Hearne hadn’t given the impression, even unintentionally, to people who will never in any other way hear of him, that Descartes campaigned for vivisection (“He held that animals are unconscious mechanisms that only appear to feel and think. . . . On that view, even nailing a dog to a board and cutting his chest open without anesthesia is not cruel. . . .”). But thank you for the article. If I’m lucky enough to have another dog I’ll go about what’s between him and me more intelligently. I do have a old horse I treat kindly. I’ll tell her what you said, about how she ought to be given her chance to be proud--still.

ROBERT H. WORMHOUDT

Fullerton