I AM pleased to see that The Argus has been carrying accounts of the extremely distressing issue of dog thefts and also has given some good news about owners who have got their dogs back.

The police have obviously taken this seriously.

However, I would like to draw your readers' attention to an unfortunate incident in a recent episode of East Enders where a dog, apparently a stray, was "adopted" by Mitch, former husband of Karen Taylor, to help his daughter recover from the loss of the family dog through illness (that was a very sad episode but sensitively handled).

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Karen was unwilling to take the little dog in, but Mitch hoped to convince her. Then Mitch found a notice showing that the "stray" was actually lost, and a picture clearly showed it was the same dog.

After a short reflection, he screwed up the notice and threw it away.

No doubt he was thinking of his daughter who had grown fond of the new dog. So, someone had lost their dog and was clearly distressed enough to put up notices only for the person who found it to ignore them.

I know we don't look to EastEnders to inform our moral compass (!) but this gave a very unfortunate impression at a time when dog theft, whether intentional or accidental, is hot news. I wonder if the scriptwriter is aware of this?

Diane Waller

Address supplied