Punish cruelty to pets

Just occasionally I am prompted to use the Star mail to express opinions which may be controversial. On this occasion I condemn, without reservation, apathetic or cruel individuals.

"Court order for girl who killed pet cat" was headlined in the Star recently - a teenager spared for stabbing a cat to death and banned from keeping animals for three years.

Her action was of course abhorrent but by no means as vile as many others. All share the same denominator of being capable of cruelty to hapless animals.

Courts, as all caring people realise, do absolutely nothing to reduce this needless growing crime. Banning for life is the only possible sentence when cruelty to animals is inherent in some adults' psyche. Courts fail to take this into account.

Anyone guilty of cruelty at any level must be banned for life regardless of any other punishment.

The large majority of livestock farmers care for their animals and are often really devoted to family pets.

Unfortunately in recent court cases, the occasional farmer has been guilty of particularly horrendous acts of cruelty to a range of different types of farm animals, often ending in slow and painful deaths.

Most sentences include being banned from keeping animals for months or a few years. How stupid are we by allowing this to happen?

Perhaps readers who care enough will send a copy of this letter to their constituency MP and perhaps help to force courts to act more logically.

Eddie Fleming Telford