To the Editor:

Thank you for publishing Margaret Renkl’s heartbreaking piece “How Not to Kill An Animal” (Op-Ed, Nov. 19). It details some of the horrific, and unnecessary, suffering people impose on wildlife, such as leg-hold traps.

You also covered President Trump’s signing of the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, which was passed unanimously by Congress (“President Signs Bipartisan Animal Cruelty Bill Into Law,” news article, Nov. 26). While it is a very positive step, it exempts the cruelty to wildlife described by Ms. Renkl as well as the torture of livestock endemic to factory farms. Since dogs in puppy mills are deemed livestock, they are exempted from the law as well .

Ironically, in the Nov. 26 Science Times, James Gorman writes not just about dogs’ devotion to people, but also about their capacity for interspecies love of all kinds (“Yes, Your Dog Loves You. She Can’t Help It.”). How wonderful it would be if we humans had so much compassion for other species.

Kathryn Head

Summit, N.J.