SIR - Back off the bacon if you want to save your own and save animals!

That's the message to your readers from Viva! - Europe's largest campaigning vegetarian organisation - after yet another attempt to prop up the British pig industry (National Save our Bacon' Week).

Pigs are fun-loving, inquisitive and intelligent animals. They need saving, not an industry where almost all of them are factory farmed - bred for meat in cramped, often filthy conditions with nothing to alleviate their frustration and boredom.

Around 70 per cent of British sows are forced to give birth in metal crates so small that they are unable to turn around for the five weeks they are incarcerated. British piglets are slaughtered at just six months old.

If animal welfare doesn't do it, then perhaps self-preservation will. Eating just 50g of bacon a day can increase your risk of bowel cancer by a fifth. The World Cancer Research Fund has said the safest amount of bacon to eat is none at all.

For a free pack on stopping cruelty and going vegetarian contact Viva! At the address below, ring (0117) 944 1000 or visit viva.org.uk

  • Justin Kerswell, Campaigns Manager, Viva! 8 York Court, Wilder Street, Bristol, BS2 8QH