SIR - It is good news that chicken welfare has made the headlines recently, but it is still depressing that the vast majority of the 860 million chickens killed for meat each year in this country still are still factory-farmed.

What is even more shocking is that now a major supermarket is selling chickens at £1.99 each - less than a take-out tea or coffee. For a supposed nation of animal lovers, that is a sad indictment of our attitude to the welfare of animals.

Chickens are selectively bred and pumped full of drugs to keep them alive. Today's chickens are slaughtered when they still cheep' at just six weeks - chicks in an obese adult body. By the time they are killed, many are crippled as their legs cannot support their body weight.

Even free-range and organic chickens die early and suffer an unnaturally barbaric death at the slaughterhouse.

We can all do our bit to end this suffering by not eating chicken and opting for a veggie diet. For a free veggie recipe pack call Viva! on: (0117) 9441000 , visit viva.org.uk/chickens or write to the address below.

Justin Kerswell, Campaigns Manager, Viva! 8 York Court, Wilder Street, Bristol

SIR - The cloning of animals for meat and milk presents a major problem in terms of animal welfare.

Scientists agree that it causes even more suffering than farmed animals experience at present, animals that are crammed into factory farms, forced to gain so much weight they go lame, driven insane by confinement and slaughtered well before their time.

Reject this ugly mess and go vegetarian, for your health and the sake of the animals.

Alexia Weeks, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Southwark Street, London