In reference to the recent story in The Royal Gazette concerning dogs, I feel compelled to say that there are no nuisance dogs, only nuisance/stupid dog owners.

In case anyone doesn't know, dogs, left to themselves, are sociable pack animals and will gang together and hunt or rummage (depending on their environment). They also bark, dig holes, roll in the mud, fight each other, and generally run amok. If such a dog was a house pet you can imagine the state of the house and the people in it.

However, dogs have lived with humans for many thousands of years, and most dogs will accept their human masters as their pack, even if the humans don't bark or roll in the mud with them. Dogs will also accept that there are limits to what they can and cannot do in the house, in the yard, as well as what is acceptable behaviour on or off a leash whilst walking. They will do all of this willingly, despite being deprived of their doggy desires, in return for your affection, love and care. They will also be loyal for ever, protect your life and property to the death, eat all kitchen scraps with gusto, and love you regardless of how ugly you might be.

When there is no love, no affection, no care, there is nothing for the dog to respond to. Tied to a stake in the yard for ever and a day, with a bowl of water, and a few scraps, and no affection, is no way to keep any creature, never mind a sociable animal like a dog. Kicking it, slapping it, hating it because it does doggy things (see above paragraph) is like slapping a two-year old child for making a mess with a bowl of ice cream.

I am told that the mental age of most dogs is of a two/three year old child, for the purpose of measuring to what extent they can be trained. In other words, they won't learn to use a word processor or sit quietly under a tree and read a book, but they can be taught to, sit, stay, come on command, lay down, roll over, not jump on you, your visitors or the furniture, as well as many other things. However, this takes time (you know, the stuff that most people say they don't have, whilst they stare at the cable TV, sit morose and/or bored in a bar, play cards, lay on the couch, sit on a wall). It also takes patience, empathy, love (a verb, not a noun), caring, more patience, money (for food, vet's bills (lots), leashes, collars (they do grow), coat brushes, unbreakable dishes, and on and on). And remember that whilst the two/three year old child will grow up, and learn (one hopes) to do things for itself, a dog remains at the level for the rest of it's life, and possibly yours.

The story of the Government Pound is appalling. The SPCA isn't much better, despite having funds to do more than they do. Money (or lack of it) is not the problem. The problem is finding willing caring people to take care of the dogs in these places; the problem is laziness. The great majority can't be bothered... to do very much at all, whether it can be train their dog or train themselves. And no amount of leash laws, muzzle laws, lock-up-the-dog-forever-laws, is going to change this. Just over a year ago, two dogs (not pitbulls) being walked by a woman (who obviously couldn't control them and should not have been walking them) escaped from their leash and half-killed our cat whilst she stood and watched! Of course, she was legally okay since the dogs were leashed, but it didn't help much, and what would the outcome have been had it been a young child? Some sort of Trained Dog Owners Licence needs to be instituted so that you can't have a dog unless you are willing to spend time training it. There is already a school for such a purpose, there is also the SPCA who could think up these ideas by themselves. There are gad zillion organisations and groups worldwide for such things -- we don't have to re-invent the wheel. The Internet is here in Bermuda. Research it. Find out what works, what other countries do. Adapt it to work here. There are prisons here full of young men and woman forced into idleness through ignorance and petty bureaucracy, whose time could be spent training dogs (and their owners). And since training a dog has to be on a consistent effort (not a "when-you-feel-like-it'' basis), they (both prisoners and owners) may learn some self-discipline in the process.

The alternative of having all dogs on a leash at all times outside of their yard is ridiculous. Next, they will all have to be muzzled, because it'll be the lazy route to make a blanket policy rather then just for pitbulls. Neither is a solution and no life for a dog or its (responsible) owner.

TRICIA THOMPSON-BROWNE Pembroke Twinning is a bad idea June 14, 2000 Dear Sir, It was with great alarm that I read in your paper the article regarding the proposed twinning of Bermuda with Charleston, South Carolina -- in my opinion, this move would be the equivalent of twinning with the former apartheid philosophies of the government of South Africa.

I have been a part-time resident of South Carolina for many years and every time I come back to Bermuda my head is spinning from the hatred I have encountered. The white native South Carolinian not only hates the blacks, but they hate the Italians, the Jews, the Northerners, the Cubans, the Communists, etc. and everyone else who was not born with Magnolia Breath and a great uncle who died on the steps of the Capital during the Civil War.

A century-old war that they are still obsessed over and that they blame all their personal economic woes on and still look upon all the Northerners who are now flooding into their area (and supporting the whole economy) to purchase houses as carpetbaggers. A war that still makes them refer to their lost plantations, lost wealth, lost economy, and justifies their calling the current black natives "the ancestors of our former slaves''.

Bermuda wants to twin with that? I don't think so.

When I moved there I was told by the `socially informed', that there should be no mixing, not just of the races -- but also of nationalities -- Jews should stick to Jews, Italians to Italians... and the list goes on. I have always made a personal joke that anyone coming into Bermuda with a South Carolina passport should be denied entry by Immigration: that is a very sad comment on how this group of people should be viewed.

As a Bermudian, I felt ashamed that I should even be temporarily residing there and staying permanently would be equivalent of condoning their philosophies. Whatever personal animosities one encounters in Bermuda -- race against race, nationality against nationality -- it is really very superficial and minimal in comparison, for the majority of us are proud to be Bermudians and we do have a very genuine love and concern for each other irregardless of race. We are doomed to live with petty prejudices but we do not "hate'' as the South Carolinian hates.

Back to Charleston. The government members who want this twinning, obviously have never been there. If they have visited, they have never crossed the dividing line of the city and have only been mesmerised by the pastel colours of Rainbow Row and the white pillars of the Charleston mansions in the lower end of the this peninsula.

They have never opened their eyes when they cross the bridge into downtown and seen the crumbling shacks, the dilapidated buildings leaning on angles and ready to fall over, the scruffiness and seediness. This is not where the Magnolia Breaths live. This is not where they take tea in the afternoon or sip mint juleps. This is where the ancestors of their former slaves live.

Granted Bermuda does have a very close historical link with Charleston as the first Governor General was William Sayle, a former two-time governor of Bermuda, and he personally chose this land where Charleston lies as his own and called it Oyster Point. Not even the native Charlestonian knows this history or if he does, refuses to recognise it.

Charleston also lies only 70 some miles from the worst poverty area in the North America continent. Again a fact that most white Carolinians deny as they join very self righteous Bible thumping religious groups to practice good deeds and gossip while they pack relief packages for some remote village in Africa thinking this absolves them from their hatreds or insensitivity to the poverty conditions that exists right under their noses.

They are good Christians. They have poverty, the Ku Klux Klan, but this act of packing a box of used toys to ship somewhere else in the world makes them good in the eyes of God.

I do not think the Bermudian people want to be associated with any place that has so little regard for the dignity of the black people. I do not think the Bermudian people want to be associated with any place that still accepts poverty, illiteracy, hatred of the North, and the Ku Klux Klan as a way of life. The flag issue was a very small tip of the iceberg and look at the reprisals that evolved.

My name is being withheld, but not from the Bermudian people. It is withheld because the Bubbas are capable of deadly reprisals.

BERMUDA YES, CHARLESTON NO! Smith's Parish Petty, unfriendly decision June 8, 2000 Dear Sir, I find it extraordinary that our Government's Customs would feel it necessary to make a big issue of commercial fisherman not being able to use their boats to view the Tall Ships on June 12. Here we are in the middle of a world class event to mark an exciting time in our history -- an event that we may not be able to witness again for many years, if ever, and it does not seem that an exception can be made for one day. I am totally aware of the tariff restrictions on commercial boats, but good heavens, what kind of people do we have making such petty and unfriendly decisions? Commercial fisherman work hard for a living -- long hours in undependable weather. Is there not one day that they are able to have restrictions lifted so that they may take their families out for a pleasant afternoon to be a part of such an international event? This is an event that our Government has supported on behalf of all of Bermuda. Certainly this decision is not benefiting anyone. It is, however, making us all aware of how inflexible the restrictions are -- and the people who make them. I cannot think of any place in the world where the decision makers would not want every single person to be a part of such an historic event -- adults and children alike. Why not concentrate on the really important matters that affect us all -- like spending taxpayers money where it benefits us all.

I would hope that an exception could be made for this special day, and commercial boats be given the ability to participate. I am quite sure that it would be something that everyone would appreciate and it would show us all that we have a friendly and flexible Government after all.

I look forward to your response at your earliest convenience, as this is a timely matter.

FRUSTRATED