In response to your article “Focus attention on international human rights issues” (Aug. 25): 

I applaud Jessica Goldstein for asking why the media doesn’t focus more on human rights violations in Africa and elsewhere. 

May I suggest, however, that the story of Cecil the lion’s slaying is a powerful reminder that, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” 

Or as the white civil rights proponents who risked life and limb to demonstrate in Selma and register black voters said to their critics, you do not wait until the issue you relate to most is resolved before recognizing that all exploitation and discrimination are evil. 

 Members of other species, like those of other genders, age groups, races and religions, deserve respect, and if we can learn to extend consideration to those we find difficult to relate to, then we will be all the more able to extend consideration to those we relate to more easily. 

 I think Goldstein’s point is better made in attacking the media for focusing endlessly on Kim Kardashian’s derrière, salacious stories and fashion frivolity, which often dominate the front pages, where human and animal rights issues deserve to be.

——The office of Ingrid E. Newkirk, President of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals