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Letters - September 4
No cruelty to natural tricks Regarding the article "Stop this cruel show" (Gazette Saturday August 29), I get fed up with people talking about a subject they clearly no nothing about.
John Bradbury says the horses, ponies and dogs in Bobby Roberts' circus do tricks which are distressing to them.
Let's take the horses and ponies, all of which are stallions because they hold their heads naturally in a proud position and do naturally in the wild all of the actions they perform in the circus.
They rear up at each other when fighting, kneel down to bite their opponent's legs, twist round and lash out with their hind legs, stand on their opponent's back – all natural movements in the wild for such stallions.
I was a master farrier for 36 years and did attend to Bobby Roberts' horses when at the Tower Circus in the 70's.
If you ban this circus then you will have to ban all equitation, show jumping and driving – as is this not horses performing tricks?
Now the dogs, all of us who have or had a dog make them do tricks of some sort, they love to perform. Take the dogs agility shows, they run through tunnels, jump over walls, weave in and out of sticks, which you must agree is not natural for a dog.
So, do we ban these shows?
It is just like the circus dogs performing tricks for the public.
And as for the camel and elephant, they are part of the family.
I saw more cruelty and reported people for cruelty while a farrier.
I have seen circus horses close up and seen their performance and never seen any sign of cruelty.
Come on Mr Welsh and Mr Bradbury, leave Mr Roberts alone.
John Welsby
Links Road
Knott End.
No resort can cope with 'free' buses
I am writing regarding the possible bus cuts due to the added expense of pensioners travelling free.
Don't get me wrong, I agree with pensioners being allowed to travel free within their home towns.
Anyone in their right mind should have realised that seaside towns such as Blackpool and other popular visitor areas could not possibly sustain the fluctuating expense of providing free transport for visiting pensioners.
Despite any predictions of visitor numbers, the result could never be known or correctly forecast and so subsequent Government payments would never cover the cost.
In the meantime the transport bosses are faced with a serious predicament that will no doubt affect everyone who lives here. I am pleased the town is receiving more visitors for whatever reason but not if this ends up costing the transport system.
This will mean that more buses are cut and in the winter so when our pensioners need these vital services they will not be there. Plus, in future years visitors will not want to return because of the lack of services.
This cannot be allowed to continue and I would urge as many people as possible to write to their MP to raise this issue in Parliament. Don't just think about it, write to ask for support before it is too late.
Karen Pennington
St Martins Road
Blackpool
Mayor.com
I refer to your recent vote asking are councillors value for money.
Readers may be interested to know what the Mayor of Blackpool does.
The Blackpool4me.com site /councillors/Norman Hardy and Val Haynes page has a weekly record of the various things I, as mayor, do and readers may find it, if not interesting, at least
informative.
Coun Norman Hardy
Mayor of Blackpool
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Wednesday 30 May 2012
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