Your article on the problem of stray dogs – and the “conflicting” advice given – highlights an impossible situation (Daily Echo, September 31).

The RSPCA used to take stray dogs from the police – but stopped doing this a few years ago.

The difficulty is that when a dog is a stray the person who finds it cannot make decisions about its future.

I cannot understand the refusal of the police to take on the responsibility – although I see the practicalities are a problem – or the problem of finding a dog warden, as I thought there was more than one.

I have to say that in East Dorset we have an excellent dog warden, and so does New Forest.

But since your article highlights the game of ping pong going on with the unfortunate strays of Bournemouth, can the Daily Echo continue to pressurise the two bodies responsible for the handling of the problem to get their heads together?

The local dog charities are overburdened, as the first one to feel the pinch in hard economic times is the poor family pooch – and out he or she goes.

However, many more responsible owners who are at their wits’ end and being evicted don’t know where to turn either.

The problem looks like getting worse. But shoving it backwards and forwards between two official bodies makes life hell for the dog.

Celia Marker, Post Office Lane, St Ives