This refers to the news items and the subsequent letter ''stray dogs can be a menace'' (April 2), the writer in his letter laments over the killings of thousands of animals, birds and fishes by the non-vegetarians the world over to whet their appetite and called to open a flood gates for a country wide debate.
Let us examine what the religious texts say about this. The Bible says God created all things for his (human) consumption. After the creation of the universe and the living things Lord Jehovah said to man "Every moving thing that lives shall be meat for you; even as the green plants, I now give you everything." (Genesis Chapter 9:3).
In the Ramayana Valmiki describes in many places how Lord Rama and Lakshmana secured food by hunting. Valmiki makes it quite plain that they had to subsist largely on meat. C Rajagopalachari in his Ramayana also mentions this: "Meat was not prohibited for Kshatriyas. Indeed it has always been the rule in India to permit any food legitimately obtained and consecrated as a sacrifice. Rama was a Kshatriya and he lived in the forest in the Kshatriya way, though abstemiously." ( Ramayana Chapter 20).
Obviously all living things exist for the human use. it is a universal fact. Why then this big hue and cry over it. God made everything for the human consumption. If we are not utilizing it we are just despising the God''s order. P V Ariel.