THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997            TAG: 9702060006
SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A16  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                            LENGTH:   28 lines

WHAT'S SO FUNNY ABOUT ANIMALS' PAIN?

D. G. Fullmer's letter about PETA (``From PETA to PETALS,'' Jan 17) in which he mockingly suggests that plants feel pain, too, is not original. In fact, it is the third such letter to be printed since PETA's arrival in Hampton Roads. But it is revealing. We know that animals experience fear, pain and loneliness if we've ever had a dog or cat at home or if we attended Biology 101, so what is the point of making fun of people who act on that knowledge?

Until recently, human babies were denied anesthetics for even major surgical procedures. Before that, doctors thought babies couldn't really feel pain. Today, chickens have their beaks seared off and pigs and bulls are castrated without anesthesia. I have stood in the slaughterhouse and watched ``civilized'' human beings kick cows in the face and smash pigs in the snout with baseball bats because the animals were too confused and frightened to move fast enough to their deaths. We know these animals feel, but to acknowledge the fact would mean we would have to stop treating them like dirt and casually frying up their body parts.

INGRID E. NEWKIRK

President

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

Norfolk, Jan. 20, 1997