In defence of Amy and her guinea pigs

I am appalled and disgusted that those opinions where allowed to be printed slating the young girls hobby, causing what I can only imagine upset in the family home.

The initial article was celebrating Amy Harper's achievements and show casing the vocational talents of our communities school children, something I believe is very important.

The article lacked the information regarding details of the care and organisation the family put into raising the healthy bunch of guinea pigs. There was no grounds for criticisms and the disgusting responses being published this week have been made with no knowledge of how the pets are being cared for or kept - the opinions published with week are exaggerated and hold no relevance to the poor schoolgirl story, who is now being indirectly bullied by these comments, allowed in your paper.

I have every confidence that the family understand responsibilities of breeding, have plentiful knowledge and provide more than sufficient care to the animals; the initial article could have provided more detail and commented on the excellent condition of the cages and well-being of the animals, and the rigorous re-homing process in place for the pets - far from cruelty and carelessness!

I should expect the family have already been in contact regarding the backlash in this weeks edition, and I expect to see a sincere apology is to be printed and the efforts of the young girl to be applauded for such a detailed interest and vocational tallent.

As part of our community, I give my full support to Amy Harper, her family and this exciting project, wishing them the best of luck.

As the voice of our community I believe the Weekender. should do the same in next week's edition and not allow its self to become an areana for the narrow-minded, ill informed members of the public to dampen the spirits of a young school girl.

Catherine Hague, Rig Drive Swinton Mexborough.