Training animals to do things they wouldn’t do naturally is cruel (Dujardin’s career in tatters after horse whipping costs her damehood and funding, 24 July). Nobody today approves of the chimpanzees’ tea party, which is hardly different from the fancy dress dressage which for some reason is an Olympic “sport”.
Peter Dewar
London
• I was interested to read the precautions that GB triathletes are taking before swimming in the Seine (Report, 23 July). While at Aberystwyth University in the early 1970s, we would go surfing near Aberystwyth harbour, which at the time was very polluted. Our precautions included yoghurt, mouthwash and Coca-Cola, and we would always smoke a cigarette after surfing, to protect our lungs!
Richard Bamber
Praa Sands, Cornwall
• Who remembers the hours of Olympic-like routines we played as children, with intertwined and looped elastic bands, which we called Elastics (Letters, 24 July)? Entertainment at no cost if you lived on a busy postal run.
Siobhán Ní Chuanaigh
Clonskeagh, Dublin
• Re cat burglars (Letters, 24 July), I am reminded of a Christmas morning many years ago. There was serious banging going on at the cat flap. My tabby had “found” a beautifully cooked turkey leg from someone else’s turkey. I never admitted this to the neighbours.
Liz Thompson
Oxford
• Another example of a feared phrase in English (Letters, 23 July) is “working tirelessly”, much-used by Tory ministers. Hopefully Labour will eschew such exaggeration in their pronouncements.
Ian Arnott
Peterborough
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