Like many others, I felt saddened by the death of Bruce, the police dog who was put down because he could no longer be trusted.

I always understood that a police dog was a well-trained working dog who, like sheepdogs and hounds, knows only one way of life.

They live apart from our comforts of home with their own handlers, who feed and care for them in an outside kennel where they live at all times when not working. They answer to their handlers instantly.

In general, once they can no longer work, they have to be put down because they are not used to other people or another way of life.

Walt Disney glamorised all animals and gave them "human" personalities but, in real life, this is not so and each animal must be judged, and cared for, on its own merits.

-Mrs P Bolingbroke, Larkhill, Hove