SIR – I hope very much that Dusty, the little dog who is thought to have been locked up all her life on a Welsh puppy breeding farm, will find a good home (‘Ditched by callous breeder – now Dusty needs a home’, Worcester News, October 15).
However, what happened to Dusty is really just the tip of an horrific iceberg, as according to a report by the rescue charity Dogs Trust, there are more than 110,000 stray or abandoned dogs in the UK, with more than 7,000 being destroyed by councils annually.
A major reason for this appalling situation is that deliberate and negligent breeding has produced far more dogs than homes are available for them.
For this reason, it is vital that members of the public should get their dogs neutered and spayed at the earliest opportunity.
And please don’t encourage breeding by buying a dog or puppy from a breeder or pet shop. Go to a rescue instead!
JANE HARGREAVES
Stourport

We have a population crisis and it must stop
SIR – Re the Worcester News editorial ‘Use land to house next generation’, isn’t your logic faulty?
Won’t today’s young house buyers soon be pensioners, so won’t your ideas simply result in an ever lager reservoir of old people, as the decades pass? When the SWDP is history, won’t there be an SWDP Mark Two, to spread even more concrete? Isn’t house building now a continuous industry?
Moreover, haven’t you overlooked the infrastructure equation? How are we going to cope with a doubling of our local population? Where are the plans to double road capacity, double hospital provision, the schools, the doctors, dentist, the police fire etc? Aren’t the stories and articles regarding future infrastructure provision almost completely absent because our MPs won’t fund it?Aren’t we just going to be buried in humanity and concrete, thereby destroying social provision?
How much more concrete are you determined to spread before you accept we don’t have a housing shortage, we have a population crisis, which everybody is determined to ignore? We cannot make more land, so isn’t covering ever larger areas of what’s left in concrete, environmental and ecological lunacy? Don’t future generations deserve better from us? If political common sense existed wouldn’t the SWDP be scrapped and Cameron be told to take a hike? There has to be an upper limit on how many millions of people our country can accommodate: isn’t it time we all recognised we are way past the limit? Aren’t you allowing Cameron to run away from that reality?
N TAYLOR
Worcester

Our soldiers should be proud to wear uniform
SIR – What a total disgrace our country is to our soldiers.
What shall we put up with next? The case of a British RAF soldier being made to leave an A&E hospital because he went in his uniform which he is proud to wear for Queen and country.
They say he was told to leave because he may upset Muslims. How dare they even have the right to ask one of our own British people to leave a hospital. He was injured in a training accident and had every right to be there.
As most of our hospitals are now run by foreigners, if they don’t like our Queen’s uniform let them go back to their own countries.
It’s going too far, all this political rights. The treatment of our forces should come first, no matter what others think.
We need to get our country back how it was. Men sitting round a table letting this country be taken over is disgraceful. We cannot even look at a different race unless we are called racist. Come on British people, about time we stood together and said it’s time to send people home.
Shame on the hospital in question in London.
CAROLE ROBERTS
Worcester

Police presence in city is welcome addition
SIR – I was pleased to see two police officers and a CSO in Worcester city centre this morning (Monday, October 19).
We certainly need them around and about more as I feel the city has seen a marked increase in various ‘characters’ over recent times. What was once almost unseen is now visible for all to have to tolerate. I literally tripped over a sleeping bag and occupant last week outside the chemists in The Cornmarket and very often witness daytime drinking of alcohol in inappropriate areas. I know this is very sad for those concerned and their well-being is important, however, I don’t think young children and citizens as a whole should really have to see this side of life on a daily basis. Surely the institutions that open their doors to the less fortunate have a duty of care for 24 hours a day and not just at night?
C D LEE
Worcester

Food company is not largest employer
SIR – For months now in this paper we have had to endure reading that Orchard Valley Foods are the largest employer in Tenbury Wells.
Now we read about a new care home that employs 80 people with plans to expand and become Tenbury’s largest employer.
If you joined these companies together they still would not employ as many people as Esterform packaging Ltd.
Just for the record, Tenbury’s largest employer is Kerry Foods.
S N COOK 
Tenbury Wells