The big debate: Chloe the Dalmatian

HOSPITALS closing down, council homes being sold off, the recession… what it seems people really want to read in their newspapers are stories of animals surviving adversity.

And as such, the New Journal’s tale this week about a Dalmatian rescued from beneath a bus by fire crews has tickled the Daily Mail and The Sun and a few other national newsrooms.

Ronald Vester’s pictures catching the moment spotty Chloe was helped to safety are doing the rounds on their websites.

And the straw-poll proof that people care more about trapped dogs than credit crunches, can be see on the Daily Mail’s version, which in just a few hours has  drawn more than 60 comments. The contrast is Daily Mail divisive, a heady mix of dog-loving well-wishers (‘We’re so relieved for Chloe’) arguing with irritable council tax worriers who say her owner should be fined for letting her get in the fix in the first place (Those fire fighters should be saving humans, not dogs).

And in the middle of the row, the Daily Mail itself cops it from this logger-on-er:

“It also made me chuckle that some miserable, souless and moaning Daily Mail readers jump at any chance to make negative comments on a story which is ‘good news’.  I’m surprised no one has blamed no one has blamed the “spotty ones” for coming over here, taking all our jobs and eating our swans. Catherine Peerless, Dalmationland.”