THERE are times when we despair whether the mentality of some people in our community will ever drag itself out of the neanderthal.

The sinking feeling that it won't was prompted by the arrival of the letter which prompted today's story on the shooting of a family cat in Warndon.

The callous act is sickening to begin with, but anger rises with every sentence which follows, describing the heartbreak and distress.

There will be some people, we suppose, who'll say "it's only a cat", either as an indication that such savagery doesn't trouble them, or as a clumsy expression of the fact that the target wasn't a person.

The truth, it goes without saying, is that there's no moral distance between one or the other - that and the fact that it was a short step from where this gunman stood to the point where warped thinking turned his or her sights on a man, woman or child.

None of us should be in any doubt that such a step might be taken.

Think back to last Monday's Evening News, when this column reflected upon the consequences of someone opening fire on a Boomerang Bus in Dines Green.

The owner of the cat makes the same connection.

"It's truly sickening to think that such ruthless and ignorant trash are living in our society. Why are weapons capable of killing pets and people so easy to obtain?" Why indeed.

Not for the first time - and, we fear, not for the last - we invite readers to play a part in bringing the guilty people to the police's attention.

Take your imagination on a short journey and anticipate what you'd feel if it were your pet killed, or your child's eye put out by a thrill-seeker's pellet.

Then do for today's victim what you hope someone would do for you.

Shop this maniac before we find ourselves reporting on a manslaughter, a funeral, a crown court trial and a long jail sentence.