Madam, It all comes down to greed, carelessness, callousness, and hypocrisy.

Greed because certain criminals here and abroad saw a chance to profit by passing off cheap horse flesh as expensive beef; and because food manufacturers and supermarket chains put profit before all else, however much they may protest to the contrary.

Carelessness because our government hasn't bothered to carry out sufficiently thorough checks on food that is sold to the public. Not just now, but never, because if anybody thinks its only over the last few weeks they've been eating horseburgers they should think again.

Callousness because amidst all the media hype I've not heard or read one single word about the awful cruelty to horses subjected to slaughter in abattoirs.

Hypocrisy because though we may object to eating horse meat in the UK that doesn't stop us slaughtering horses (9,400 last year) and exporting their meat to other countries.

The fact is that there is absolutely no need to eat ANY animals. Raising livestock is grossly wasteful of the planet's resources and their methane emissions cause more global warming than all the powered transport in the world, including cars, buses, lorries, trains, ships and aeroplanes.

Neville Fowler, Weston under Penyard