DOG’S LIFE

I hope I never run across a truffle (“Truffles--No Trifling Affair,” by Sherry Virbila, Jan. 12).

The cavalier way the author describes treatment of the dog involved: He is “left for 8 or 10 days without eating” before being taken out to hunt.

Then “when the dog manages to sniff out a truffle, he’s rewarded with a piece of bread from the trifulaos’ pocket. This is a hard life,” she says.

From there on she rhapsodizes about the aroma, taste and expense of this delicacy.

Perhaps some of us are too delicate or sensitive to the plight of starved dogs to appreciate this.

I’m aware the world is full of inhumanity to helpless creatures, but this was really discouraging. Don’t they have any humane societies in Italy?

KAY ROSS

Santa Monica