Sir, - Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) was described by a huntsman recently as trying to be the conscience of the farmers. I would like to correct this misguided view. We are not in the business of attempting to gain the moral high ground; rather, we simply want to bring about an end to legalised and widespread cruelty to intensively-reared farm animals. We want to see Ireland (and the EU) move towards the production of safe, high-quality, cruelty-free food produced in an environmentally-friendly way. CIWF is not anti-farming - indeed, the founder of CIWF was himself a dairy and poultry farmer, and we certainly have farmers among our Irish members.We hear with increasing frequency an argument which seems to say that anyone involved in promoting good animal welfare must automatically be anti-countryside, anti-farming and posing a threat to the rural way of life. Again, this could not be further from the truth. In reality, an attitude of respect and compassion towards both humans and animals is a basic requirement for the countryside to flourish, including the people who live there.Today, we subject farm animals in Ireland to routine mutilations, we give them antibiotics to make them grow faster, we keep them in cages, or chained up, crammed into huge windowless sheds, forced to lead lives filled with suffering and misery. Now we have genetic engineering being put forward as a way of making animals produce even more.We show these animals neither respect nor compassion, and we disregard the destruction these farming methods bring to our environment. Factory farms are not pleasant places to be in, and it is hardly surprising that young people today are not keen to take jobs in intensive pig units or in battery hen sheds.Rather than being a threat to rural Ireland, I would suggest that animal welfarists have an important role to play in pushing for a reassessment of intensive farming methods, and helping to change attitudes towards food production so that, in future, methods are used which are good for animals, good for the environment and good for people. - Yours, etc.,From MARY-ANNE BARTLETTDirector, Compassion in World Farming, Grand Parade, Cork.