May I as (in their words) a completely ignorant townie be permitted to address a few questions to fox hunters?

1. What gives anyone amongst us the right to blatantly disregard a law of the land, simply because we do not agree with it?

2. Why do you consider that hunting a wild animal in its own environment is perfectly acceptable, and not cruel?

3. Why do you repeatedly stress that your own strength of feeling is more valid than the majority of people in our country, to whom all blood sports are abhorrent?

4. You repeatedly state your determination to continue hunting without violence or aggression, so, what about the violence and terrible fear that you perpetrate towards a wild animal that is hunted to exhaustion, then ripped apart by frenzied hounds?

5. What happens to the hounds once their usefulness is spent?

6. Many books and magazines reveal disturbing accounts of bullying, intimidation and actual bodily harm frequently perpetrated towards your fellow human beings who bravely dare to actively oppose your sport. If we, as human beings resort to violence towards our own kind and towards the animal kingdom, haven't we lost the art of communication, love and respect?

7. Your sport is constantly hailed by you as an old tradition and the sport of kings. Does that archaic feudal claim deem it to be right? Even Spain is now addressing its ancient tradition of bull fighting: lobbying to outlaw its barbaric entertainment.

8. Would you please explain cubbing to me, which has now been renamed autumn hunting. I am informed that it is to make the sport sound less offensive? What exactly is the procedure at these dawn venues?

9. What do you tell your children when they are ceremoniously initiated by being daubed on the face by blood from the tail of a slaughtered fox? Are they taught to respect the lives of all creatures, with the exception of the fox?

MARY RATCLIFFE

Croft Road