Cost of living

I was very I impressed with Mike Flynn’s article (Friends of The Scotsman, 6 August) on the Pet Rescue Service. I abhor any cruelty to animals and people who want to have pets should only acquire them if they can provide the animals with a good quality of life.

It is clear many families find the burden of ownership too great and so they hand the problem over to the Pet
Rescue Service run by the 
Scottish SPCA.

I am all in favour of reasonable efforts to find new homes for unwanted pets but I have doubts about asking for more money to look after increasingly numbers of unwanted animals.

I suggest if unwanted pets cannot be found new homes in a reasonable time they should be painlessly put to sleep. This may seem harsh but huge numbers of animals are slaughtered every day for food.

I feel the Scottish SPCA should concentrate the use of its funds to combat animal cruelty and its other excellent work rather than keeping considerable numbers of 
unwanted animals alive.

Hugh M Mackenzie

Pitlochry