Madam,

In the recent somewhat unbalanced, if not hysterical and partly hypocritical, general public reaction following the demise of two lynx from the Borth animal centre, it is disturbing to observe how little, if any, regard has been shown for the human dimension of the story.

That a local farmer lost seven of his sheep to the escaped lynx doesn’t seem to bother people in the least. And as regards shooting the animal, as opposed to tranquillising it, this was done in the best interests of human safety as it was by then too close to a populated area and could have kept on moving for another 15 minutes, had it been tranquillised. We are told that lynx pose no danger to humans (so long as we keep at a respectable distance from them), but what if this one had come across, for instance, a small child? There is no knowing really what might have happened despite assurances. Best to pre-empt.

It also seems that many people regard the human being as only a kind of animal. If so, humans are no more important than animals and maybe, for some, the lynx is even more important because of it `cuteness’. Show me, then, an animal that can write a book, compose a symphony, build a computer, send a man to the moon, etc.

One also gets the impression that the real reason some people want to reintroduce the lynx (not to mention wolves) to the remoter tracts of this island is that they are romantically infatuated with the idea rather than with the reality and the potential danger thereby posed to humans. This is irresponsible and one hopes their dreams don’t come true.

As the great G.K. Chesterton once said: “Where there is animal worship, there is human sacrifice”. So let’s get our priorities right.

Yours etc,

I Daniel, Waunfawr, Aberystwyth.

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