Sir Terry Pratchett Is a Hero to Animals

Renowned Discworld novelist Sir Terry Pratchett now has another honour to add to his long list of accolades: PETA’s Hero to Animals Award. PETA gave Sir Terry the award after learning that the best-selling author had pledged a £10,000 reward to help find the person who killed 31 swans in Somerset.

Sir Terry was outraged by what he called the “wanton destruction of a living creature”. He added, “People who do this sort of thing to an animal are probably a danger to people as well”. He’s right: people who abuse animals are cowards who take out their issues on the easiest victims they can find, and their targets often include humans. Many murderers, including Steven Barker, Ian Huntley, Thomas Hamilton and others, also tortured and killed animals.

Sir Terry’s generous reward makes a clear statement that cruelty to animals is wrong and society will not tolerate it. Let’s hope that the reward also helps bring the swans’ killer to justice.