THOUGH I welcome the 16 weeks jail sentence given to the badger killers, it should have been at least three years (The Press, January 11).

These badger killers had two Land Rovers with them. They should have had the vehicles confiscated and sold and the money given to the badger charity. Let’s not forget 20,000 badgers are slaughtered like this every year. Let’s not forget animal cruelty is on the increase. Cats and kittens are being killed. A horse was sedated and mutilated. A pony in Wales was mutilated and killed. This is senseless cruelty.

Let’s start giving these thugs longer sentences, then maybe animal cruelty might decline.

Mr D Fillingham, The Crossway, York.