A lightweight idea

Re “Dying to ride,” editorial, May 31

Anyone who’s known me for more than a minute knows I prefer animals to people, but the editorial about self-starving jockeys did not “excite compassion” in me. Not, as The Times muses, because the jockeys aren’t pretty like fashion models but because, unlike the helpless animals they scream at and whip, they have a choice.

My guess is that given a choice, the horses would prefer to run around without a fool of any weight on their backs. What a pointless editorial that insults those with true eating disorders.

Deborah Felin

Boulder, Colo.