IT is regrettable that Michelle Bryan has allowed herself to be persuaded by hunting apologists like P Newton that foxes need to be controlled; for that is merely an excuse that is given to justify this pursuit.
Indeed in the 18th and early 19th centuries, when there was a shortage of foxes, the hunts imported them from all over Europe.
There are no figures available for the depredation due to foxes, only stories from individuals. It would require a moratorium on hunting for a few years before any reasonable assessment could be made of any need to control them.
It is odd, perhaps, that those who are against hunting give little thought to the hounds.
What happens to them when their brief hunting life is through. Do they go to retirement homes, or are they helped along to the happy hunting ground in the sky?
JULIAN PILLING, Railway Street, Nelson.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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