PETER Davies (Wiltshire Times, May 3) accuses the Countryside Alliance of deliberately frightening shooting and fishing interests into believing their sports are next on the hit list, after hunting with dogs, without any evidence to support it. Why is evidence necessary?
Personally, I support field sports; but people who sincerely regard hunting as too cruel to be allowed, must logically acknowledge cruelty can occur in shooting and fishing.
Shooting does not always kill instantly; creatures that are wounded can crawl away and die slowly. Fishing by barbed hook, followed by suffocating out of water, is not much fun for the fish.
Beatrice Webb, the Fabian leader, spoke of the "inevitability of gradualness" in introducing Socialism. The principle is used by politicians to achieve long-term ends without too much opposition. Though the anti cruel sports lobby say "they have no plans to ban shooting and fishing", if hunting were banned, such plans would appear.
CHARLES
COPLAND-GRIFFITHS,
Wingfield Road,
Trowbridge.
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