SIR – If I had been the judge dealing with the thug who swung a defenceless cat round by its tail (T&A, August 14) I would advocate a very large person picking up the miscreant by his ‘tail’ and swinging him round a few times.

Let the punishment fit the crime is my view and see how he’d like it.

Catherine R Thomas, Grovelands, Bradford Civilians under attack SIR – The carnage in Gaza carries on relentlessly with seemingly nothing or no one able to stop it. The human cost makes grim reading. The UN reported last week that a total of 1,911 people have been killed so far; 1,402 civilians, 452 of them children, and 236 women. The injuries stand at 9,861.

After WW 1 concluded, it was estimated 10 per cent of casualties were civilian and the other 90 per cent military. In all wars since, the numbers of civilian casualties has steadily increased so that in wars today, the two figures have reversed. Now, out of every 100 casualties in war, 90 are civilian.

The one country, which has influence to make this latest bloodbath stop, the USA, utters platitudes but does little. What are needed are ‘honest brokers’ to establish a sustained ceasefire and win the genuine trust of both sides. But from where? Until such times as they do emerge, it appears the killing will continue. The world merely watches.

David Hornsby, West View Avenue, Wrose