W

e refer to the letter printed on June 10 in The Jakarta Post. It is not only Australians who are reacting to the ways in which exported cattle are being treated in slaughterhouses in Indonesia, revealed by recent investigations there.

The members of Quaker Concern for Animals in Britain are joined in this letter by our friends in the Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals, Catholic Concern for Animals and the Unitarian Animal Welfare Society.

It is surprising to us that concern about gratuitous cruelty to sentient beings should be dismissed as “childish” and “preposterous”.

Surely all faiths enjoin us to be merciful, to protect the defenseless and to live in harmony with everyone.

Why should we not consider important the welfare of other animals too?

Our fellow beings, susceptible to suffering in just the same way as we, are God’s creatures too, and are due our compassion and respect.

We have written to the authorities in Jakarta, asking them urgently to institute investigations themselves and to take appropriate measures to ensure that slaughter methods are in the future decent and humane.

Far from shrugging our shoulders at these deplorable revelations of what is happening not just to Australian, but to Indonesian animals also, we should all be feeling deep shame – those who perpetrate the cruelty, those who benefit from it and those who stand by and do nothing.