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Letter: Zero tolerance for animal abuse

Condoning the misuse of any creature for our whims trivializes the value of life. Maybe the tortoise is not that big of a deal when we consider other terrible animal abuses that get to continue: the killing of endangered rhinos because some believe that the horn acts like an aphrodisiac or catching the totoaba fish in the Gulf of California, which swims with the most endangered marine mammal on Earth, the vaquita (a small porpoise).

There are only 97 vaquita left, and they could be extinct in two to three years. When they net the totoaba (yes, again for an aphrodisiac from some of its parts), the endangered vaquita also gets caught in the nets. Of course there is the now-extinct Yangtze River dolphin in China that died from human activities. No one bothered to save it. And how about the abuse pigs endure so people can have their bacon? Ivory greed is still allowing elephants to be killed.

Callous indifference to any animal’s mistreatment seems like a statement that all animal abuse is condoned. This is why I will not visit the Aspen Art Museum until the tortoise display is gone. (I also don’t eat pork or beef.)



Denise Handrich

Snowmass