ANIMAL CRUELTY

YOUR report (Echo, Aug 30), Tormented dog bit innocent boy, highlights again the need for your cruelty campaign (Animal Watch). A dog owner allows her dog to roam instead of taking it for walks and later seems more worried about her court appearance than about the bitten boy or her dog.

Roaming gangs of children kicking, throwing stones etc, at any passing animal often leads to the tormenting of smaller children and vulnerable adults.

Reports are regularly trotted out by psychologists and the media - "cruel kids invariably become cruel adults". Some even become murderers.

If parents can't show and teach kindness to their kids then the RSPCA, teachers, politicians - anyone preferring a kind world to a cruel one - needs to help fill this parental responsibility gap in any way possible. - EM Johnson, Crook.

l Give a dog a home - see Page 10

THIS is a message from Tinkerbell to ask for your help to fund a special campaign for better conditions for horses, ponies and foals at UK auction sales and markets.

We are also asking for funding to provide a modest salary and expenses to a very experienced, fearless person to attend and report independently on the conditions at horse and pony auctions throughout the UK.

We want to investigate reports that MAFF code of practice guidelines are being blatantly ignored. It is no secret that foals under the age of four months are frequently auctioned, and the use of sticks and beating still goes on.

Equines transported to the auctions are frequently overcrowded, pens at the auctions are also overcrowded and hay, water and bedding are never in abundance. Equines are also sometimes sedated to appear docile and others are drugged with painkillers to hide lameness.

Why am I complaining? Because my mother was drugged before she was put into an auction and sold as a child's quiet riding pony. When the drug wore off the next day she was as wild and as terrified as ever.

My other friends, Sullivan, Jane, Sherrie, Ria and Sasha, all experienced the same problems outlined above. Many of this year's crop of lovely foals like me (but not me) will shortly be rounded up - separated from their mothers - herded and transported to auctions all over the country from late September.

Can you help? Further information is available. - Tinkerbell and Friends, c/o Olive Lomas, Animal Welfare Liaison Network and the only Foals and Horses Sanctuary Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, BBS 3RN.

GREEN BELT

I CAN'T agree more with the Council for the Protection of Rural England about our green belts being under threat.

The evidence is there, just look at the land between Redcar, Marske and New Marske which has been developed against the wishes of local people, and the plans to put even more houses on what bits of green land are left in that area.

We are told there is a demand for thousands more houses, but surely we do not need to spoil more countryside when there are many existing houses for sale and smaller plots of land in towns and villages which could be utilised. The lovely place where I grew up and have lived for most of my life is a shadow of what it used to be.

Green belt should mean green belt, not an invitation for developers to build and planners to dispose of to the highest bidder.

The last 25 years have seen our heritage slowly disappear and local people's views totally ignored.

The solution is in our hands, next time a precious piece of countryside is threatened we have to fight to keep what little we have left. - Councillor Barbara Harpham, Conservative Leader, Redcar and Cleveland Council.

HEART DISEASE

I SUFFER from a type of heart disease called cardiomyopathy (CMO) for which there is no cure, but it can be managed.

For the past two years, I have taken part in the Darlington Fun Run to help raise public awareness of CMO and also to gain much needed funds for the Cardiomyopathy Association which is no longer funded by the British Heart Foundation.

I would like to say thank you to all the spectators who gathered on High Row for the finish of the run. I was last to finish, but they gave me a tremendous cheer as I approached the line.

If anyone would like more information about CMO or would like to make a donation to the association, they can contact me on (01325) 264806. Cheques for donations should be made out to the Cardiomyopathy Association and I will pass them on with my sponsorship money.

Finally, I am looking for a filing cabinet to help run my group more efficiently. So if you have a cabinet that is surplus to your requirements, I would be very happy to put it to good use. - John Waterson, Darlington Cardiomyopathy Self Support Group.

JUSTICE

PETER Mullen (HAS, Sept 5) is absolutely correct when he writes: "Justice must be the same for everyone, rich or poor, black white or brown..." and the Macpherson report recommends nothing else.

It is clear, however that this has not been the case. Evidence includes the case of Stephen Lawrence and several similar but lower-profile cases. The alarming number of deaths of black people in police custody and the alarming fact that black people in London were up to six times more likely to be stopped and searched than whites, tends to exacerbate tension and alienation.

In seeking to eradicate such injustice there is always the risk of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but the solution then is to rescue the baby, not to throw the bathwater back in. - Pete Winstanley, Chester-le-Street.