Readers' letters - July 10

A new report released by international animal welfare charity World Animal Protection reveals that more than three quarters of nearly 3,000 elephants used in tourist entertainment in Asia are kept in severely cruel conditions.

Riding an elephant is one of the most popular tourist activities in Asia, but when World Animal Protection investigated the conditions endured by 2,923 elephants at tourist venues in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Laos and Cambodia, they found 77 per cent of them were treated appallingly.

The cruel trend of elephants used for rides and shows is growing – we want tourists to know that many of these elephants are taken from their mothers as babies, forced to endure harsh training and suffer poor living conditions throughout their life.

There is an urgent need for tourist education and regulation of wildlife tourist attractions worldwide.

Venues that offer tourists a chance to watch elephants in genuine sanctuaries are beacons of hope that can encourage the urgently-needed shift in the captive elephant tourism industry.

Most tourists sign up for experiences with elephants because they love wild animals and don’t know about the cruelty behind the rides, tricks and photo opportunities – if people knew the facts, then they wouldn’t do it.

The best place to see an elephant is in the wild or, in the next best place, a genuine elephant sanctuary.

Dr Jan Schmidt-Burbach

Global wildlife and veterinary advisor at World Animal Protection

Toothpaste

for only 40p

Thankfully, I have never needed a food bank.

I have donated to them, as I do to the charity shops.

My mini diva grows out of clothes so fast it’s difficult to keep up, so I like to see his clothes put to good use.

It must take some courage to approach a food bank, as who wants to admit they can’t feed themselves or their kids?

I heard that children are not brushing their teeth as the parents can’t afford the brush or toothpaste, so food banks are desperate for more supplies.

Now, I buy Colgate for £1 and three brushes for £1, but in the supermarket you can buy toothpaste for 40p.

It’s the shop’s own

brand but it cleans your teeth.

These items are as expensive or as cheap as you make them.

Jayne

Grayson

via email

Don’t go back

to the 1970s

It was no surprise to see Jeremy Corbyn ‘down with the kids’ at Glastonbury.

However, are the young people of the UK so shallow as to swallow his utopian rhetoric?

If so, they should be made aware of Labour’s economic record in the 1970s, which saw the UK go to the IMF for a financial bailout.

Fed on an attractive diet of lies and half truths, the electorate in the EU referendum took an economically doubtful decision. To elect a Corbyn Government now, however, would put that decision in the shade.

Mr RGN Webb

Address supplied

Annoying their own supporters

The Conservative Party is excelling at annoying the voters, and especially their own core supporters. They called an unnecessary election, then did not win it. They are riddled with internal fighting and not admitting their errors.

They have failed to get a good message across. They use far too many advisers, and are thinking too much about a new leader.

Opposition parties can hardly believe their luck.

Our country needs them to change course quickly and be in a forward positive state.

David Quarrie

via email