Readers React: You can’t get a steak in heaven

To the editor: What a revolutionary idea: No more meat! (“Listen to the pope: Hurting animals is wrong,” Opinion, July 10)

And if it’s not enough to know that it would end the needless and harrowing suffering of animals by the meat industry, how about knowing that animal agriculture is responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions and that growing feed crops for livestock consumes massive amounts of water in the United States?

Just think. We might save water, save the planet, and save all of God’s creatures by changing our diet.

Martha Stevens, Studio City

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To the editor: For animals, there is no justice. There’s just us.

Ronna Siegel, Van Nuys

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To the editor: I am very grateful to have animal welfare written about in the newspaper; this one is done particularly well. I have long thought that Christian care includes real care for our animals — thoughtful, humane and compassionate care such that animals do not suffer.

With so many allusions to shepherds and their flocks of sheep in the Bible, there is no way that big agribusiness can be considered Christian in its treatment of animals.

Sarah Stewart, Gardiner, Mont.

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To the editor: I enjoyed this logical analysis of the pope’s encyclical. I applaud Pope Francis for urging Christians to show compassion for all of God’s creatures.

As a nonbeliever, I’ll leave the biblical interpretations and discussion of what constitutes a sin to others.

I simply believe in the Golden Rule, and since I wouldn’t want to be unjustly imprisoned, let alone killed, dismembered and eaten, I consider it my moral obligation to follow a vegetarian lifestyle.

Those who choose otherwise often justify their actions by claiming human superiority, which seems to me an argument of convenience.

My observations tell me that when it comes to suffering and the desire to live, animals are our equals.

Stewart David, Venice, Fla.