THE hunting issue drags on and on. I am still against the abolition of foxhunting and I more or less agree with Mrs Macmullen's letter in last week's paper, though I deplore some of the practices employed by some of the huntsmen.

Hunting is cruel, but at least it's natural.

And nature is cruel e.g. cat/mouse, spider/fly even and the fox which manages to invade a chicken run is quite ruthless.

However, it seems to me that we need to keep a sense of proportion.

What is going on here every day (not two or three times a week) is a hundred times more cruel than foxhunting.

And that is the transport abroad of live animals, specifically horses, for slaughter.

They are loaded on board using cruel inducements and transported to their death in horrifying conditions which terrify and sometimes injure them, even fatally sometimes.

The International League For The Protection of Horses and similar organisations have been protesting for years (and I understand better facilities for loading have been implemented).

But the practice of live transport continues.

If the dog is man's best friend then surely the horse must run a close second and to repay their loyalty and friendship in this way is disgraceful.

The transportation of live animals for slaughter is so much more cruel and unjustifiable than foxhunting.

The fox after all expects to be hunted that's how he has become so wily and is himself a predator.

I would so like to see the fox hunting adherents turn their attention to this far more pressing issue: For every fox that is killed, hundreds of horses meet this terrible end.

MURIEL CLARK

St John's Close

Marlborough