ALTHOUGH well known for his eccentricities, and believed by many to be living on another planet, Clinton Keeling now appears to have lost the plot altogether.

Is he seriously suggesting that the best way to beat crime is to "leave it to the criminals to police themselves?" After all, they are the experts when it comes to law-breaking! Also does he think that knowing the relationship between the cycle of eunice viridis and the gastronomic preferences of certain islanders makes him qualified to comment on the morality of confining animals in ZOOSEUMS?

Boring though he is, I will attempt to answer a few of his points. He can feel privileged that I am taking time out of my more important work to respond to his moral challenge, as I do not intend to do it again! Nor do I intend to present Mr Keeling with an opportunity for an ego trip -- if he wants to satisfy his juvenile need to show what a clever little chap he is he can look somewhere else!

Firstly, he obviously doesn't understand what CAPS campaigns are all about because he, like others, is threatened by our work. Obviously he is only interested in protecting what is to his own advantage.

Why should opposition to a practice of behaviour necessitate intimate knowledge of the practice? If I find something reprehensible I will say so. I do not need to be involved with that practice. If this were the case then it would be impossible for society to condemn a whole range of unacceptable behaviours. Does Mr Keeling believe that George Bush is an expert on global warming?

He has a problem with the use of the word zoo. Mr Keeling I have a problem with the activity under any name and I suggest you take up the pedantic with Iain Valentine -- he advertises his sorry business with a large sign saying ZOO erected outside. Are you at odds with zoos in the country over the use of this term? I know that some of them have run away from the name by changing theirs to "environmental park" or "conservative centre", because the zoo is now recognised for what it is -- a fun park (unless you are an animal). A zoo by any other name is still a zoo.

Finally, Mr Keeling, as an avid supporter of zoos, you are totally unqualified to pontificate on morality or respect for wildlife.

While I am writing I would like very briefly to address the letter from D Moorby: Go away and learn the facts about zoos and please don't try to pretend you are unbiased. I admit I am biased -- this is based on years of observation and research. I find that when ordinary people take the trouble to find out what zoos get up to, and see how they are of no value whatsoever to conservation, they then turn against them.

As for the other nonsense, it is clear that your correspondent hasn't a clue what they are talking about. Half of what has been written is old hat, the rest is a diet of fictional fairy stories -- similar to the misinformation put out by the zoo to Councillors, MPs and members of the public. Blackpool Council had to sent out letters of apology on behalf of the zoo -- that, I believe, says it all. Can we really believe anything they say?

D Moorby is clearly wounded by the success of CAPS. To that I have only one request -- sit back, you're in for a long ride.

P Simpson, Cherry Tree Road, Blackpool.