AS a local animal rights campaigner who does not hide behind anonymity, I challenge Tony Williams of Blackpool Zoo to name the group he claims are responsible for the hoax anthrax scare.

It is obvious that the police have been careful not to mention animal rights (or anyone else) in connection with this anthrax scare incident -- they know the value of having evidence to corroborate such claims.

Unfortunately, it is the zoo that has lost credibility, not local or national animal rights groups. Once again it is Blackpool Zoo which misled the public, MPs and local councillors, just as when they claimed that they had not used electric goads on elephants to teach them tricks.

They had to eat their words -- as they did after their claims not to have "stretched" the elephants were also discovered to be false. They had subjected these poor creatures to this suffering in order to bring the elephants into line.

S Briggs, Gorse Road, Blackpool.