I WOULD like to clarify the confusion at present felt over the ban against hunting with dogs Bill currently being overwhelmingly supported by the majority of Labour MPs in Parliament and which also has the promised vote of the Prime Minister.

This Bill has consistently gained support from the public, many of whom voted Labour in order to get this barbaric and medieval practice banned once and for all, for the following reasons:

The fox is a beautiful natural British wild animal, does not run riot all over our countryside (were we over-run during the foot and mouth epidemic?) and are self-regulating in their numbers.

Therefore, they should not be considered pests. It is natural for them to eat rodents and occasionally raid chicken runs which are not properly secure. Our own pet cats and dogs do the same thing, with other animals.

Foxes (and stags) are not dealt with by a "nip to the neck" as pro-hunters like to say, but endure many miles of chasing before either being ripped apart by a pack or by being forcefully dug out of a hole and then forced to run away, only to be faced with the same agonising end.

Pro-hunters say this is not cruel would they like to try it and see if they feel pain?

The hounds themselves are not kept for more than five or six years, then are shot by their keepers. The pack is also starved before the hunt to make them keen.

Very small dogs, usually terriers, are made to go down dug-out earths to make the fox re-appear which usually ends up in a wound to the dog.

Horses have been known to suffer heart attacks in the chase and die, but we never hear about that (in one instance the rider dismounted and calmly took another mount, leaving his own horse to die.)

Many artificial earths have been discovered where foxes have been specifically bred for the hunt so much for the "pest."

Foxes have been known to have been caught, put in a bag and presented to the hounds later in the hunt for them to kill.

Summer cub hunting also goes on, where the very young cubs are dealt with in the same fashion and even kept to give to the hounds to give them a good scent of the fox when the hounds are young.

It is sickening the way children are made to take part, are "bloodied" in their first hunt blood from a killed fox smeared on their faces and "trophies" removed from the foxes and celebrated over.

No hounds need be put down in case of a ban, because drag-hunting can be done instead, with all the fun of the chase but no suffering involved.

All the horses could then be ridden as well, and not destroyed as they would have us believe. Only a few people would lose their jobs, namely the terrier men.

Several protesters have lost their lives trying to save hunted animals' peacefully the perpetrators have never been brought to justice.

I am myself a hunt saboteur so I know what really happens, not what hunters want people to see on TV.

Hunting with dogs should stop now. This also goes for stag hunting and hare coursing/hunting and mink hunting, all of which should have been stopped alongside bear-baiting, cockfighting and other so-called "entertainments."

NAME AND ADDRESS

SUPPLIED