To the Editor:
Westport officials should not be wasting time with a “day of remembrance” ceremony for neglected animals. Enough wallowing in this!  Animal abuse is abhorrent and illegal, but the crimes have been prosecuted. Time to move on. For the context of this letter, please read first “Day of remembrance to mark Westport animal suffering” (Westport Shorelines, June 19) so you can appreciate the ridiculousness.
The only reason this issue continues is because we have too many hand-wringing biddies in town who are always looking for a cause to get hysterical over.
The absurd over-reaction to this incident is just another symptom of America’s worsening “animal culture”. Remember back in the 1960s when there was a tiny structure in the backyard called a “dog house”? That’s where the dog lived…outside. 
Today, we have dogs in grocery stores, dogs dressed up in costumes, and dogs in, yes, strollers built not for babies…but for dogs. What an idiotic treatment of an animal that has four legs and doesn’t even know enough to avoid eating its own feces. I bet if you had a dog tied up to a “dog house” in 2017, you’d have old ladies calling the police. 
Other irrationalities include people who feed the birds but are aggravated that the “greedy” squirrels raid their bird feeders. Or people that are upset with cats killing birds. Remember the gorilla that got shot because a toddler fell in its pit? People are all up in arms about whether it should have been shot...well of course it should have been shot, before it snapped the kid’s neck ... but nobody was pointing to the real cause -- hidden in plain sight -- which is that there is this human artifice called a "zoo" in the first place. 
There would be no such outcry in Westport if the photos of suffering animals were of sewer rats, instead of horsies and doggies. How is such an incoherent sense morality derived from anything by an illogical sentimentalism?
The real “insanity” that needs to stop is America’s ill-conceived, hypocritical animal culture.  Humanity’s current relationship with animals is arbitrary. Maybe you’ve all been fooled by watching too many Disney movies or children’s cartoons. 
Not too long ago in human history, animals were tools commandeered by our less-evolved ancestors for the survival of our own species. Animals were beasts of burden to plow the fields and also a fantastic — and delicious! — source of protein. Ask the dodo bird…no good comes of being stupid, slow, and tasty when you’re in front of a Homo sapiens.
Domesticated animals today not for food or work are just a sentimental carryover. Indeed, animals as pets are largely a First World indulgence, and generally a liability and nuisance to everyone except their owners. Perhaps in a future far from now we'll look back on slaughterhouses and carnivore-ism as morally-corrupt and barbaric.
But if not, and until then, spare me the hypocrisy. Everyone is outraged at dog fighting, but people fighting is a pay-per-view event live from Las Vegas; wouldn’t logic suggest the opposite should be true? 
I hope all the vigil-holders on July 24th are also vegetarians, but I expect the irony is lost on them—particularly in a “right to farm” community—that so much fuss is wasted on some farm in Westport while the livestock industry raises, only to kill, millions of animals per year. 
Because a dog is fluffy and cute, and a pig is ugly and tasty, we pet the former, and fry up the latter for breakfast, even though experts believe that pigs are far smarter than dogs; that a pig has the intelligence of a 3-year-old human. What if there were a pig roast in the park immediately after this silly event?  Will the vigil-holders be horrified to see “Wilbur” spinning around on a rotisserie, or will they all dig into the savory, mouth-watering bbq that gets pulled off by hungry humans and all their opposable-thumbs.
All of this informs the question of whether this is an issue worthy of official attention & time. If Westport voters really care about law enforcement, maybe spend your time thinking about electing better officials, rather than lighting a tea candle to mourn every piece of livestock that is not categorically different than whatever animal you paid to be born/raised/killed/cooked/served to you as dinner later that evening. 
So light all your candles, this is a free country.  I expect to see you later that evening shopping, not picketing, the meat counter at Lees, where I’ll be buying tasty beef tenderloin, juicy chicken, and succulent, flavorful bacon.  Mmmm….bacon!
Thomas Collins
Westport