Animal cruelty

Your report (23 November) of men earning £40,000 a year being fined less than a month's beer money for sadistically torturing a living, sentient animal to death must surely prompt all right-thinking people to ask at least the following two questions.

How much longer is alcohol to be accepted by the courts as a mitigating factor in crime? How can it be right for the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to accept a donation from persons convicted of animal cruelty, assuming the 100 donation was in fact made and accepted as stated in the said report?

GEORGE LAWRENCE ALLEN

Galachlawside

Edinburgh