PLEASE excuse my lateness in answering A M McCarthy's letter "Zoos educate the young and old".

I've been to four different zoos in my life, one when I was young, one when my children were young and the other two to observe the conditions of animals in zoos after reading several books and numerous leaflets on the subject.

At the first zoo I ever went to I can remember quite vividly a lion and tiger in their metal prisons pacing backward and forward hour after hour day in day out year after year until they died only to be replaced by other captured lions and tiger.

That was a long time ago but I can distinctly remember thinking at the time that I was glad I wasn't in a cage and not being able to get out. That same zoo had a single polar bear in a pit type enclosure where children used to throw buns and the like because they thought it could be hungry.

I now know that the only think that polar bear wanted was its freedom. Had I known then that animals of this kind should be in the wild where they travel miles every day of their waking lives in search of food and new locations to interact with others of their species I would have walked out of that zoo there and then.

I've asked several young and older people recently if zoos are educational and their response was that most of their interest, pleasure and education about animals came from books, television and the internet. Good on you caring people.

Terry Stringer,

Coniston Ave,

Knott End.