This quote from the breeder of miniature donkeys ("Australia's largest collection of miniature donkeys can be found near Canberra", canberratimes.com.au, October 9) sums up what is wrong with our prevailing attitude to animals.

A chair is something. A potato is something. An animal who has, and can indicate, interests and preferences, who can show affection, can suffer, feel pain and pleasure and who has relationships with other members of their own species and with others is not "something".

When we treat such beings as objects and make them property we are acting immorally – just as surely as when we treat fellow human beings as property.

While it might be less troubling to the donkey breeder's conscience that those animals do not generally go straight off to slaughter, they are still produced solely to be of trivial use to humans.

It's time we recognised that all sentient beings are someone – not something.

Mike O'Shaughnessy, Spence

Of course the Housing Industry Association's outlook for the ACT home renovation industry ("Renovation may be the way to go as industry predicts renaissance", October 8, p2) is looking rosy.

Including as it must all the instant "renovations" – aka "rectifications", requiring plenty of materials and labour, often to the tune of millions – required by 90 per cent of brand new apartment complexes in Canberra. And, for that matter, in Sydney.

These represent effectively a 100-fold cost shift for the original cheap, slapdash and often clueless construction, as experts have officially costed rectification at 100 times the price of having done the work properly in the first place – though some of that multiple goes towards the ubiquitous and inevitable associated litigation costs.

Could we see the Law Association's litigation profits projections for the ACT and indeed the other jurisdictions? Where would the economy be without slapped-together housing? It makes the world go round.

Alex Mattea, Kingston

I couldn't agree more with Paul Malone ("Hypocrisy over downed planes", October 9, p19) on the downing of MH17 in Ukraine.

When the American missile cruiser Vincennes shot down Iranian passenger aircraft flight 655, killing all 290 people on board, there was no call from Australia to bring the US criminals to justice.

Nor has there been one since, even from our big-mouthed ex-PM who promised to shirtfront Putin over the MH17 incident.

As Malone says, nobody on the Vincennes or in the higher chain of command has ever faced sanction or prosecution over the shooting down of a civilian airliner. In fact, it's worse than that. What he failed to mention is that the captain and the weapons officer were subsequently rewarded for their service on the Vincennes with a Legion of Merit for the captain and two commendation medals for the weapons officer.

Bronis Dudek, Calwell

Paul Malone's article starkly describes the hypocrisy of the Australian government's position on the shooting down of civilian aircraft.

In September 1978, Air Rhodesia flight 825 was shot down at Kariba. Fourteen of the 52 people on board initially survived the crash landing. All but three of the initial survivors were then murdered on the ground by the organisation which had downed the aircraft.

In February 1979, Air Rhodesia flight 827 was also shot down at Kariba by the same organisation.

All 59 people on board were killed. In June 1980, the leader of the organisation responsible for these atrocities became a political leader in the new Zimbabwe, a country the Australian government had helped to establish.

His name was Joshua Nkomo and his master was Robert Mugabe. Mugabe remains President of Zimbabwe. He's never been asked to account for these two mass murders.

The Australian government's response was effectively zero.

As Paul suggests, official outrage seems to depend on who's doing the shooting.

Peter Moran, Watson

Cool Floriade welcome

My wife and I have attended Floriade since its inception and always found it a pleasurable experience; last Sunday was no exception. After three weeks since Floriade 2016 commenced, the flowers looked fresher than after similar periods of time, during which previous events were held.

No doubt our wet weather had something to do with this. Weather is something Floriade's organisers have no control over and it's a bit rich to criticise them for cancelling some events due to this factor.

Being aged 70 plus, I could enjoy Floriade 2016 even more in the cooler weather; at least I did not leave this year's event hot and bothered as on previous occasions.

R.S. Baczynski, Isaacs

Peter Toscan (Letters, October 11) bemoans the cutting down of trees on Northbourne Avenue as they have been identified as dangerous.

So what would be his preferred option? Should we wait until they fall over by themselves, like the tree that fell across Northbourne Avenue near Wakefield Avenue during the storm last week?

As much as I like gumtrees, they are not suited for cities due to their propensity to drop large, heavy branches without warning and falling over during high winds.

As for the tram? Bring it on!

G. Bell, Franklin

In his interesting article, Nick Miller wonders if the US presidential election would follow the same pattern as that of Britain choosing to leave the European Union ("Five lessons from Brexit for US presidential election", October 13, p16).

Miller reckons that people, instead of voting on facts, would rather vote on apparently attractive promises.

Sadly, it seems that those who chose to believe the "lies" made by some Brexiteers had poor education, while those who wished to remain in the EU were largely university graduates – who did not fall for the promises of the Brexiteers. Perhaps, for some people, the main determinants in an election are political allegiance and income, rather than giving serious thought to the likely consequences of what is being promised.

Sam Nona, Burradoo, NSW

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