Silent majority is against a cruel and violent 'sport' (From Gazette Series)

Silent majority is against a cruel and violent 'sport'

SIR - Hunting is, as most of us have always known, a violent pastime for violent people. Pro-hunters, trying to sanitise, call it sport.

Calling it such is an insult to the men and women who pit their real achievements against each other rather than the overdressed few who find it pleasurable to pit a pack of hounds, horses and a howling mob against a single fox. They would have us believe its humane! Is it running to win a race? Or running for its very life?

The simple solution to a fox problem would be to hire a skilled marksman with a gun, however I do realise you would have to forego the pleasure and satisfaction of seeing the quarry torn to shreds at the end of the chase - it is a blood lust after all.

Being country-born and bred, I have heard every excuse for the need for fox- hunting - from the killing of chickens, mange, to the care of the countryside. Even to the fox enjoying it! Did anyone ever actually ask the fox and was it even taught a lesson? And, please, don't tell me it's traditional. We at one time used to hang children for stealing bread. I had hoped we had moved on since then.

There never has been a valid reason for fox or deer hunting with hounds, hare coursing, bear or badger baiting, dog and cock fighting and the rest of the sordid, sickening and violent pastimes, so called intelligent humans can devise to inflict on animals for their own amusement. The Countryside Alliance with its very real concerns regarding the rural areas was hijacked by the pro-hunt body for its own ends and has thus diminished the alliance's credibility.

The pathetic outburst in your newspaper by the pro-hunt magistrate says it all and has proved what the rest of us have always known, that is, the hypocritical, bigoted and arrogant attitude the hunting fraternity holds towards the rest of the law abiding public with their threats of civil disobedience. Who do they really think they are? That magistrate should be removed from the law benches immediately as he cannot be trusted to pass an unbiased sentence on anyone.

A vast proportion of the public, including those of us living in rural areas and especially tenant farmers who can't speak out and who have been intimidated by the hunt, are totally against these activities and not the fictitious 59 per cent the hunt purport to enjoy.

Having seen and heard the rhetoric on TV and radio, it is a sad indictment on today's society that I have to withhold my name and address but it is expedient I do so for obvious reasons.

Anon Name and address supplied