WITH the start of the hunting season the predictable wave of for and against letters took up your letters page giving the writers' strong views on the subject.

All very commendable, I'm sure, But for me the loss of one fox or stag run into the ground becomes insignificant when I read on a daily basis about the young men and women who are killed of badly maimed in the killing fields of Afghanistan.

Without doubt more British soldiers are killed or sent home to live in perpetual pain for the rest of their lives because of the consequences of trying to subdue the Taliban. Something which they will never do — history has proved that. Even the Russians had to give it up as a bad job.

It is obvious to anyone with half a brain that the Hunting Act has more flaws in it than a leaking sieve. It is also obvious to most people, despite government arguments to the contrary, that our troops are fighting with a lack of helicopters and inferior equipment in Afghanistan.

So for the time being lets get our priorities right. Put hunting on the back burner and turn up the heat on our dismal adminstration to bring back our young men and women before more families are bereaved in a war that is becoming our Vietnam A fox or a stag can run faster than a soldier who steps on a mine!

I am the first to admit I have no strong feelings on whether hunting should be allowed or not, but I have very strong feelings on what pain some human beings inflict on their fellow humans.

It is going to be a terrible Christmas for some families but I suspect that most foxes and stags will escape the killing and maiming of the men and women in red coats!

Colin Richey

Lazenby Road,

Tiverton