Dear Sir/Madam,

In view of the terrible suffering we cause to domestic animals in our efforts to make food production as efficient and profitable as possible, on a scale that defies comprehension, "animal welfare", as it is called in my part of the world, is an issue which should be taken far more seriously than David Barboza seems to do in his article, Animals Seeking Happiness, in last  Sunday's NYT.

Happiness being a very human experience, I doubt that we can know anything about it in animals. What I do know is that "I" am not happy at the thought of consuming food produced at the cost of causing unnecessary suffering to the animal which provided it. For the sake of a clear conscience, I am "happy" to pay more for food from "Artgerechte Tierhaltung", which in German describes exactly what I mean, i.e. keeping animals under conditions appropriate for their species - or, perhaps one could say in English, treating them "kindly".