WE SHOULD be doing more to support vegetarians and to persuade more people to be vegetarians.

I myself have been brought up as a vegetarian. People say, if I had not been brought up this way, I would not be a vegetarian now.

I disagree with this. I am only 10-years-old but I feel I must write this letter against the killing of animals for meat.

They have every right to be here as we do as they were here first and without them we wouldn’t be here today.

If you asked an animal would you like to be killed, slapped on a plate, cooked and eaten when there’s plenty of other food to eat, do you think they would say OK then, no problem?

The answer is ‘No’, they wouldn’t. There is plenty of other food like patties, pasta, curries and soups.

These precious animals are also kept in terrible conditions. For example battery chickens, cows and calves getting separated and farm animals kept in cramped spaces.

We could all stop this by becoming a vegetarian. It is quick and easy to do. You are not going to die if you become a vegetarian, the animals will not die either.

Animals were not put on this world to be eaten. They were put here to be looked after properly. If the world worked differently we might be in their place, for the chop!

You can make the change.

LAURIE PUGH, (aged 10) Freemantle.