THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, October 29, 1996             TAG: 9610290007
SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A18  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                            LENGTH:   25 lines

EAT STONES, BUT DON'T THROW THEM

Hardy, har, har. ``Don't eat animals, don't eat plants; try rocks'' - columnist Larry Maddry's Oct. 14 swipe at vegetarianism was so funny I forgot to laugh.

Actually, the attempt to point out an idea's absurdity by extending its arguments to a ``ridiculous'' degree is not unique. When 19th century suffragette Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, a clever satirist penned A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes to point out how silly her arguments were since they could also be used to defend animals' rights.

Henry Salt, the great humanitarian and animal defender of the time, remarked that this response demonstrated how ``the mockery of one generation may become the reality of the next.''

Imagine, women voting and animals living free from unnecessary suffering. What will those nutty do-gooders think of next?

CAROLINE WOODS

Virginia Beach, Oct. 18, 1996 by CNB