I HAVE been staying with friends in your delightful spa town and enjoying the opportunity of taking my dog, Diana, for long walks on the common and on the hills directly above the town.

At least, Diana and I had been enjoying our daily constitutionals until we were stopped on two occasions by a man who objected to me exercising Diana on this public land.

A one-off you might think, but no. During the next three days, I was accosted on two more occasions by different people obsessing about dogs and their threat to public health.

I have become quite paranoid about taking Diana out of the front garden now and am beginning to think that Malvern has a disproportionate number of what I can only describe as cranks.

Surely I don't need to list the enormous number of benefits that dogs bring to the lives of humans?

I wonder what the vast majority of Malvernians think about dogs. Perhaps your readers would like to offer their views?

DR BILL CREBBIN, Court Road, Malvern.