THE dictionary definition of pet is: "a tame animal kept for companionship, amusement etc."

The family of dead David Kearney, who was savaged by two rottweilers, are very unlikely to view this description as accurate.

Perhaps it should be changed to read: "Any animal tame or wild, potentially extremely dangerous, kept either as amusement, or more often to compensate for deficiencies in the male psyche."

A rottweiler can make the weakest man feel tough and they could provide a substitute for the missing male hormones which might also be supplied by a Ford Capri with go-faster stripes.

Perhaps someone could outline the other reasons for owning a canine crocodile. People will say this boy shouldn't have been in the back yard where these dogs were in the first place. But how many boys have never climbed a wall to get a ball back?

How many more people and especially children must be mauled, even killed, before something is done?

The selling of dogs privately should be completely banned, with massive fines for offenders.

The law must be seen to be upheld. All dogs should be registered and a licence should entail a fee that would deter spur-of-the-moment dog buyers.

Unfortunately, in many cases, the more irresponsible the owner, the more dangerous is the dog.

A wider classification of dangerous dogs should be banned. Surely it is not beyond the imagination of those who make and enforce our laws to put a stop to these animals that ruin more children's lives in a week than murderers do in ten years.

MARIA STYLES, Durham Road, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.