I WOULD like to add my views to Peter Langley’s letter (Oxford Mail, June 28), re ritual animal slaughter for meat.

Those who practise ritual slaughter have always been in denial that it causes horrendous pain and suffering.

It is barbaric and should not be condoned under any circumstance.

We are led to believe that the cutting of live animals’ throats causes no pain – but to witness it is to see a scene from hell, with animals screaming in terror, panic-sticken, running in all directions to escape their captors.

It is a voyage into a nightmare world where animals are waiting to be, and are being slaughtered.

Slaughter is a cold, calculated pitiless system. Humane slaughter (so-called) in any shape or form is a cruel sham.

The suffering and cruelty is imposed long before any slaughter begins. Anyone who doubts that should go into a slaughterhouse and take a look at the terror of the animals waiting to be killed.

The bare fact is, that there is no slaughter without cruelty or suffering. Those who pretend that animals go to their deaths in bliss and serenity are at best fooling themselves.

CHARLES MATE Iffley Road Oxford