I was pleased to read the Telegraph Comment (LT, April 20) which referred to louts and the cruelty involved in the killing and persecution of badgers.

We also have dogs abandoned and ill-treated, starved of food etc.

The thugs who do this to our wildlife are just scum and we see this type of treatment extended to people who have been almost beaten to death, in some cases killed.

The government can do something about this instead of sitting back and doing nothing.

It is soft on crime and we have the most pathetic laws imagineable.

A proper start should be made to punish these people by dishing the same treatment out that they have shown to both humans and animals.

It would only take one or two examples to stop this thuggery altogether.

A James (Mrs), Brierfield.