Letter: Cat out of the bag

Sir: The recent arguments in your letters page concerning the ecological damage caused by domestic cats shouldn't centre on whether humans or cats are the more destructive. Of course humans are, but keeping these animals is yet another way in which some people affect the environment for the worse.

I find the tolerance shown towards cat-owners amazing. If I had a dog and allowed it to leap over into next door's garden in order to dig holes, defecate and kill wildlife, I would be thought anti-social. If I had a child who was let loose to trash the same garden, I would be considered ripe for the attentions of the social services. Yet cat-owners escape such censure, possibly because they tend to be "nice" middle-class sorts living in the suburbs, where others don't like to make a fuss.

KAREN LANE

Ilford, Essex