AS a teacher, I spend much of my time working with children in creating areas to encourage our wildlife.

They learn so much about habitats and how other creatures live. It is fascinating for them to see how interdependent are the ecosystems that exist within their own back gardens or school grounds.

How very sad it makes me feel when I read that the only reason some people exist is to destroy this balance in nature, by killing it by whatever means they can find.

Reading your letters in recent issues, I can see that other people are also mystified — and distraught — by the attitude of kill at all costs.

Putting the element of extreme cruelty aside, it is incomprehensible to people like myself that there are people out there who actually enjoy the killing of our wild animals.

I feel sorry that such people exist. In the days of various threats to our existence on the planet, there are still those ignorant enough to want to hasten the demise of any species simply for their own sick gratification.

I do so hope that some of the children that we work with will grow to appreciate the natural world without inheriting this primeval need to kill simply for pleasure.

Joan Adams

Tedburn St Mary