LETTERS From M. Hayworth, Farnham, Surrey:
IT was great to read the letters from
Terri Taverner and Don Smith (CP, 08-01-10) regarding foxhunting without the kill.
If the Tories get into power, this could be the worst year yet for our wildlife.
The lines are so blurred between this party and their bloodsports lobbies (the Countryside Alliance and Vote OK), that animals won’t have a chance.
They’ve lost my vote and that of many other Tories. With their plans to repeal the hunting act along with the alliance’s plans to get schoolchildren into the countryside (with an obvious slant on hunting and shooting), we will be reverting back to our barbaric and shameful past.
There is no case for repeal. Hunt numbers are up all over the country and drag hunting is legal. The sense of community, pageantry, heritage and jobs are all still intact and yet these disgraceful people can’t manage to enjoy themselves unless they are terrifying and killing animals.
If you support the hunting act, please get your names on the R.O.A.R. (Register Online Against Repeal), an all-party list at:
www.campaignfordecency.org.uk
From Joan and Julian Tisdale, Totland:
Why repeal?: We have been left rather confused by your article and ensuing letters concerning the IW Hunt and their claims to be following scent trails rather than live quarry.
The Countryside Alliance was adamant that a hunting ban would cause loss of jobs, income and livelihoods etc.
This — just like so many of their arguments — has proved to be totally false, with hunting apparently more popular than ever now that the element of unnecessary cruelty has been removed.
What we cannot understand therefore is why the hunters and the Countryside Alliance are so determined for the Hunting Act to be repealed.
They are avidly supporting the Conservative Party and their leader David Cameron, who has promised that one of the first orders of business for an incoming Conservative government would be repeal of the Hunting Act.
If hunting is so popular now in its present form why do they wish to bring back the cruelty of chasing and coursing hares to death, hunting stags to exhaustion and once more using the suffering and death of a live fox as some form of perverted entertainment?
If any of your readers are as confused as we are they might like to look at the website:
www.badgertrust-isleofwight.co.uk.
From Peter Lacy, Southampton:
True test: I very much enjoyed the hunt, as did some of your readers. However, for me, the pest control element is important.
This is very much restricted by the law. With hounds the animal is tested. The strongest survive.
With the current dispatch methods (under the ban) every animal that comes along is taken whether it be ill or healthy, young or old.
I think the law needs repealing and another set of rules put in its place.