I AM delighted to report that the recent sad tale in the Journal about a little bitch and her seven puppies being found under a shed in Lowton has ended happily.

The wonderful organisation Petsearch (UK)'s Leigh and district branch found a regular fosterer who took in all the family.

It's smashing to know that there are such big-hearted people around who, after reading the story, offered the family of six bitches and one dog caring new homes. - and thankfully they will be, because would-be owners are monitored.

Some of the local stories of cruelty and desertion in the organisation's summer newsletter break my heart. I don't know how any human can treat a little, harmless creature so badly.

I would have no compunction in giving the owners of maltreated pets a taste of their own medicine. I would give them exactly the same treatment they gave the little mite in their care, be it beatings, starvation or whatever. They would have to know how it feels.

Sentences for cases of cruelty are not good enough. Banning someone for keeping an animal for two, even five years, for causing unnecessary suffering is pathetic.

Put the swines in a sack and sling them in the cut that's what I say. That's all they're fit for.

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