G Steans, who is a vegetarian, says we all have the right to choices – please respect that (Mailbox, April 13). I do respect that right.

The writer says, when she/he eats eggs, they are free range. You do not have to kill a chicken to eat an egg. That is correct.

But just one small point. Baby pullets/hens lay eggs. If you hatch 100 chickens, maybe half are cock chickens, so these 50 cock chickens are either killed when they are sexed at a day old, or are reared and killed for the table.

Plus, unless they die beforehand, most hens are killed at the end of their second laying year, some even at the end of their first year.

I also care about animals and do wonder why, as yet, I have never read one letter from a vegetarian condemning the killing of animals, without stunning, on religious grounds – something which happens every day in this country.

This is a choice I do not respect.

G A Wright, Leicester.