After reading Amy Clark's reply (Mailbox, June 5) to my letter of June 1, I would like to paint a brief picture of my upbringing in a family where meat was obtained from animals reared by my father, a country-born man.

I regularly watched him kill, disembowel and skin rabbits that were bred in one of four hutches in our back yard. Rabbits to me were food, not pets but Sunday lunch and if there was anything left my dad would finish it off for his supper.

Nowadays, I could not watch an animal of any description being killed. Does that seem odd, Amy?

My grandchildren know where meat comes from but I wouldn't want them to tour an abattoir because I'm sure it would be distressing for any child to see the way in which meat is obtained.

Neither would I want them to see how people's human rights are violated in other countries or how some of our discounted clothes are made by child labour in countries such as China and India. Are your principals so high, Amy, that you also refuse to buy from the shops that use these manufacturers?

Perhaps not, as we are talking about humans here not animals but there are radical members of our society who value an animal's life above that of a human.

I note that the tone of your letter is one of attacking me for my views. Please, I am just an ordinary chap trying to live a peaceful life.

Meat eaters know exactly how their food is obtained but they continue to eat meat and no amount of propaganda is going to change that.

I admire your views and stance on what you believe, after all it wouldn't do for us all to be the same but please, keep them to yourself.

In the meantime, I'll go quietly on my way eating meat and you go quietly on your way eating vegetables.

John Wood, Glen Parva.