"DISGUSTED Animal Lover" (Your Letters, June 18) writes of her very sad experience regarding a poor cat being knocked down.

As the honorary secretary, for 21 years, of the Bury branch of the Cats Protection League, I would like to point out that our branch is run entirely by a small number of volunteers, most of whom work full-time at their own jobs.

If "Disgusted Animal Lover" had followed the instructions on the RSPCA's ansaphone she could have phoned the emergency 24-hour number and, if she could not have taken the cat to a vet, they would have collected.

As a voluntary organisation, with no paid officers, we cannot give the same type of service but we would have paid the account if someone from Bealey's had taken to cat to a vet.

It would obviously make such things much easier if we had more voluntary helpers but very few people are prepared to "sign on". Maybe "Disgusted Animal Lover" would like to join is.

Just for the record, during 1998 the Bury branch re-homed 237 cats and kittens, neutered 106 cats, paid for serious treatment for 142 cats and nursed many back to health. We also paid for the neutering of many feral cats.

We are a very small number of people doing our best to help cats and we do not get any money from the Cats Protection League headquarters to assist us.

EVELYN WROE,

Birch Street,

Bury.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.