TWO things have really "bugged" me lately.

The first is the general attitude on the opening of a teenage "boot camp".

My opinion? Great, should have happened years ago. Pussyfooting about with counselling sessions and police "ticking off" talks in schools have not lowered crime, have they?

At least locking today's violent young thugs away will keep them from the innocent and vulnerable. Hopefully, the key will be lost.

Then we have the Born Free Foundation sticking their nose in again - this time at the zoos.

At Christmas, I watched a TV programme about the so-called good work of the charity - they released an elephant into the wild after years of it being in a zoo.

They lost the elephant. It nearly died of dehydration.

It looked so lonely and lost, but almost smiled when it set eyes on its old keeper at the zoo.

Some things are best left alone. Not everything adapts or wants change.

SHERRY BARRASS, Halfpenny Lane, Longridge.

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