Dear Editor,

I was trained to kill in the army.

I ate meat with delight for many years, and then a strange thing happened. I bonded with a little calf that was always tied to a long rope on the next property. He'd get himself wrapped around a tree and be frightened. I'd go and free him, so we became friends.

I realized that, when he grew larger, his fate was to be auctioned to a buyer whose only interest was the price of his meat.

No doubt the poor little fellow ended up in pieces and wrapped neatly in a butcher shop. then it struck home: I was one of those responsible for the carnage and thoughtless slaughter of animals.

It was only in those days that I started to think about their lives and fate. I began to realize they had feelings.

In this country our animal-for-food protection laws are abysmal.

So I stopped eating meat.

One plant in Brooks, Alberta, has been slaughtering more than 4,000 cattle a day.

Imagine their lives as they are herded up ramps to the unpleasant death which awaits them. They are aware. They know.

Information is available that shows it takes approximately four acres of land to raise one cow - enough land to feed many people without suffering.

Hopefully, our human race will learn that eating meat is not a necessity. Millions of vegetarians are around to prove the fact.

Mike Harvey, Langley