Can all those who are justifiably outraged at the killing of Cecil the lion (Report, 29 July) now join the protests against the “canned hunting” of lions in South Africa. These are lions bred in captivity for the sole purpose of being shot, inside fenced-off enclosures, by wealthy trophy hunters. It seems the so-called Rainbow State cannot recognise the beauty of a lion’s skin, or see the rivers of blood that run from the ranches where these magnificent creatures are killed.
Mark Stewart
Tolworth, Surrey
• Nearly 20 years ago I was lucky enough to visit the Galápagos Islands. I have supported the Galápagos Conservation Trust ever since. If I told people that the reason for that was that I wanted to go back to the islands, stamp on a finch, behead a tortoise and garotte an iguana, they would assume I was a psychopath. If you want to preserve species, how about paying huge amounts of dosh to kill them and then, you know, not doing it?
Judith Mackinlay
Manchester
• If Charles Darwin were still with us, he could have avoided a long trip to the Galápagos Islands and just studied gulls across the British Isles (The mystery of the poisoned seagull, 25 July). Changes in food availability and habitats must put huge evolutionary pressures on gull species to evolve braver behaviour around humans, and an ability to digest ice-cream.
Sara Robin
York
• Bolton Museum may well be underfunded and possibly grubby (Letters, 25 July). I always find it full of life when I pop in, with children of all ages taking part in activities within the galleries. This is the museum that raised £1.5m, much of it by public subscription, to keep Thomas Moran’s fantastic painting, Nearing Camp, Evening on the Upper Colorado River, Wyoming, 1882, in Bolton. Unloved? Certainly not.
Megan Scott
Bolton
• When I moved to London in 1979, I went to a bakery and asked for a bran loaf (Letters, 30 July), to which the reply (in a broad cockney accent) was: “Sorry, we’ve only got white.”
Patrick Russell
London
