Much has been written in the past few weeks about the £90,000 a year allegedly paid to the new chief executive of the RSPCA.

The reaction from many people has been to withdraw their support. I would like to suggest an alternative.

It is not widely known that the local RSPCA centres (ours is at Patcham) are entirely self-supporting. The only cost covered by head office is for the inspectors. All other expenses are paid for with funds raised by the staff, about £300,000 a year for Patcham. This is a lot of money to raise from open days, fetes and fairs.

Instead of sending your donations to head office, send them to Patcham, your local centre. It has one of the best records for re-homing - so good, in fact, that dogs are regularly sent from Liverpool to find homes in this area.

-Mrs P Field, St John's Road, Polegate