THE hunters have been quick to point out that hunting is more popular than before, Tally ho! Annual meet a great social success and hunt is legal, too, Echo, January 2.

Hunting with the fox and the cruelty taken out of it, has, as we said it would, made hunting more popular.

Why, then, do the extremists in the hunting fraternity want to turn the clock back to cruelty by repealing the Hunting Act?

Is the quest for repeal really because the hunters are breaking the law and don't want to be caught and convicted?

Or is it simply that the hunters so loved their cruelty to and abuse of animals for sport, that they want to be free once more to abuse for sport, whatever the majority may think of their perverse pleasures?

Whichever is the truth, neither is a good reason for changing the law.

Douglas Batchelor

Chief Executive, League Against Cruel Sports

(by email)