IT WAS really nice to see Peter Jolly's Circus still travelling the country and giving so much pleasure to so many people. Our children have now grown up but I still have fond memories of when they were toddlers and it was at the back of the Jolly Sailor pub.

I only really noticed it this time because it was on the fields next to Bonehill, but I was really amused to see a camel and a zebra grazing in the field there.

This was all then spoilt by a group of people who had taken it upon themselves to demonstrate about the animals being used there. Have they not got a life?

Do they not think that if there was any doubt whatsoever about the animals' welfare, the RSPCA and local authorities would be down on them like a ton of bricks?

Having spoken to one member of the group about their motivation, he asked me if I cared about the animals being abused.

He was a young man with long, straight shoulder-length hair and to be honest, the camel at the show would have been older than him, and probably wiser.

Bless him – he was only saying what he had been told to say. He had read the leaflets and had his head filled with activists' material. You should have a look at the real world before you make rash statements and stop being so judgmental at such a young age.

The answer to him is yes, I would be the first to complain if I thought there was anything cruel happening to any of the animals, but running around a ring a couple of times a day and being looked after the rest of the time doesn't constitute abuse.

I have seen the way that they all had blankets on when the weather was chilly and fresh water in their paddocks. They are not ill-treated.

There are children out there with less attention than these animals and that is the irony of the matter.

Please go and find yourselves something worthy to do with your time and stop trying to spoil it for families and children.

How annoying is it when at the start of every show, a bunch of misfits are standing at the entrance and making a great deal of fuss over nothing.

I can think of a few things that do need demonstrating about, but definitely not something as undeserving as this traditional family circus.

Geoff Stanley, via email.