Vegan or not, we should all leave oysters in the ocean, where they belong (‘I’ll have them with hot sauce’: should vegans eat oysters?, 12 September).
Without obvious legs or faces, oysters and other bivalves, such as scallops and clams, may appear less animal-like than other shellfish, but that doesn’t make them any less worthy of our consideration.
Every day, we learn more about the other species with whom we share the planet – and we find that they are more intelligent, sensitive and empathetic than we had previously realised. With each new discovery, it can seem like there is more we don’t know about the inner lives of animals than we do. But we do know that we don’t have to eat them.
Cultivating oysters is bad news for our health, too. They’re a common cause of food poisoning and are chock-full of microplastics, which when consumed can expose humans to harmful chemicals.
So, let’s leave oysters off our plates and opt for healthy, eco-friendly and cruelty-free oyster mushrooms instead.
Dawn Carr
Vice-president of vegan corporate projects, Peta Foundation
• Your article reminded me of an ex-student of mine who announced in a nutrition seminar that she had now adopted a vegetarian diet on conscience grounds. Another student challenged her, saying that she couldn’t be, because she’d had a chicken salad sandwich for lunch. She replied that that was OK, because she didn’t like hens!
David Duell
Durham
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